Dr. Julius Oyedemi: Making Luxury Apartments Affordable the Cedarwood Way

The Managing Director of Cedarwood Luxury, Dr. Julius Oyedemi, a young vibrant real estate mogul who doubles as the Managing Director of Property World Africa Network, PWAN, Group, is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure that the average Nigerian owns a home. Through innovations by Cedarwood Luxury Apartments and Terraces, many Nigerians can now boast of places they can call home, writes Mary Nnah

Dr. Julius Oyedemi is a young vibrant real estate mogul who has cut his teeth in real estate by starting under the brand PWAN group. The beautiful about him is that he started as a Business Development Executive, which is mostly the lowest rank in the organisation seven years ago; and today he is now the Group Executive Director of Sales and Marketing. This has shown that a lot of developments have taken place in Oyedem’s life, a lot of exposure and a lot of experience.

Reminiscing on the journey started to a point where the Managing Director of Cedarwood Luxury, a prime real estate project engineered to make the homeownership dream of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora a seamless reality,  has become a business leader who is in high demand, he said, “Humility and paying attention to instructions have helped a lot.”
‘The Bible says God gives grace to the humble. So, if you are not humble you will not have the grace of God. Two, paying attention to details of simple instruction; not complaining, no questioning, just like the military say obey before compliant”,   he added.
Oyedemi’s educational background is commendable. He has an honorary doctorate in real estate management from the American European University; also, on certified project management issued by the school of project, UK. Much earlier, he had a degree in electronics and electrical Engineering. He is also an alumnus of the Lagos Business School.
For him, the real estate sector in Nigeria is doing very well despite the challenges as people still see it as the only sure step to wealth.

Speaking on the inspiration behind  Cedarwood Luxury Apartments and Terraces as well as the innovation which he invented, Oyedemi said, “Cedarwood brand is a unique brand that is not just a promoter of luxury; but a brand which preaches that luxury is affordable as far as real estate is concerned. 

“We have been around for five years and have a good number of signature estates to our credit. Within five years of existence, we have close to about 40 estates developments out of which are liveable estates.”
He confessed that what has brought about the landmark achievements is majorly brand integrity.

“In cedarwood, we excel in brand integrity. It’s common knowledge that anyone who does business with us can go and sleep. I do not do this business as a service to myself. That’s because our service is listed as a service to humanity.  I am not just a leader but a servant leader. So, I am not just a leader that stays under air conditions all the time. I am a leader that moves.  At cedarwood, we are high on brand value. We live on value; one of my biggest values is honesty. So, we built this motivation on those values. We are honest and in everything we do; you will see a touch of excellence. We are very much accountable and we are never giving up, we are very resilient. And above all, we are a team. You will never hear me say I did this, I did that. You will always hear me say ‘we’ ‘we’.”

Even though the Cedarwood brand was launched during the COVID Lockdown, it didn’t deter its progress. The Cedarwood boss explained why: “I face my business with every sense of discipline. Now, the COVID lockdown was a great lesson for us in real estate and I saw that COVID brought about a switch in real estate. What is that switch? The era began to make people look for finished apartments. So, the market was moving toward finished apartments after COVID. The COVID was like an end-time disaster.”

Speaking further he said, “People were like I have bought an undeveloped parcel of land and what has been the gain? So, people were worried that they had put in their money and if they had put it properly, it would have given more return on investment. Understanding that transition, I gathered the team and we decided that going forward, we have to start developing buildings and estate. And God on our side, we had the first groundbreaking on October 2020. We have had several other ground-breaking events. In Lagos, five are ongoing; one is coming up in highbrow Ikoyi, three in Sangotedo and one in Ibeju Lekki. And these are all luxury projects; one is finished and allocated and people will start living in it by this month. It is an amazing experience that changed the direction of our business.” 
Oyedemi who has impacted people’s lives in various instances through his business also has a training programme called the school of strategy, a programme, which has empowered a lot of young purposeful Nigerians desiring to be real estate moguls.

In a bid to reach out to more audiences, he recently created an online opportunity. So, starting from January 2023, the estate mogul will be having online training with interested people who want to make a living out of real estate and people who want to earn billions.
“For me, there is so much to achieve in real estate than doing yahoo yahoo, then being an armed robber, then being a political thug. I think that with what God, the training and experience that God has given me, I can lift others”, he noted.

Oyedemi whose hobby is reading revealed that one of his dreams is to have one of the biggest private libraries. “Those that are very close to me know that I consume books a lot. I have a budget, my income goes to books”, he said.   

His wife he said has played a major role in what he has become today.
“My wife is my biggest critic. So, her pieces of advice have been coming in a hard form; and hard form in the sense that what she likes to see is a purposeful man. So, everything that I do must be questioned; and there must be a why. And that has helped me a lot. My wife wants to know why are you taking to buildings. Is it because others are doing it? why are you buying a new car? Is it because you can afford the money? So, that is why I have always become prudent in spending. One thing you can rule out is it helps me to share with her; because before I do a thing, I have to call her, come this is my plan. She criticises the plan and whatever is left out of the plan is executed which has helped us a lot”, he noted.

On how he manages to combine his roles as a business leader, a father, husband and mentor, he said, that aside from the grace of God, one has to desire a purposeful lifestyle.
“What is my purpose here on earth? What do I want to achieve? What am I trying to achieve? Is it just to pass through life as a young man who is a developer? No. So, having an understanding of my purpose on Earth has made me know that I have a triangular life i.e., to my family, my work and my God. Putting these together, you see that it’s a triangular relationship that cannot be broken; because a lot of people are seeing me from the family side, as a young man who is always happy with the family. And some people are learning from me. Some see me from the God angle, as one who loves God and is devoted to God; and a lot of people see me from the working angle. ‘Oh! He is a young achiever, at his age, he has done this and that opened other organisations under him.’ For me, that creates the balance we are looking for.”

On lessons he has learned over the years as a business leader that can help other business owners, he was quick to say this: “When you have tried all, you can as a business owner and it seems it’s not working, put your trust in God; because business is physical and business is metaphysical. When we talk about the metaphysical, we are talking about spirituality, beyond the physical. So, when you have tried the physical, allow the metaphysical to come in.”
From research, Oyedemi has come to realised that only about 2% of Nigerians are having a roof over their heads and thus he described it as a disaster. Therefore, finding himself in a sector where he helps people own a home they can call their own, he feels strongly is a great impartation for Nigeria at large.

“I am not talking about forcing people into owning a home, but about making the hope of people to own a home a reality. That is what our vision stands for – making the homeownership dream a reality for all. To be honest, if we begin to think deeply, we understand that I am creating great value for Nigeria and Nigerians. But if we look at the value chain, and visible developments what about the people who are in construction? What are we creating? Job opportunities for architects, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, building engineers, urban planners, town planners, paint manufacturers, artisans,s and the likes the locals, are offered an opportunity to earn a living income. Another part of the value chain is that we are always getting building approvals from the government, and it doesn’t come for free. We are creating revenue for the government. For every building approval, there is a fee no matter how little, to pay. Again, you cannot be approved if you are not a taxpayer. If you look down the value chain, the people find job opportunities in real estate activities, you see that when they earn an income it also trickles down to their immediate and extended families. So, the impact one is making is so greater than just deciding to be a home giver.”

Oyedemi’s aspiration for the cedarwood brand in the next five years to come is to double what his company has been able to achieve in the past five years.

“In five years, we have been able to come this far, in another five years using a geometric approach even if it’s going to be an arithmetic approach, we would have doubled what we have achieved now. This is because the first five years have been a point of training. So, the next five years would be a point of elevation. Now we have known the rudiments of development and putting down the structures is a matter of just having the enabling environment”, he noted.