Diverse Skills Are Needed to Harness the Full Potential of the Real Estate Industry

ESV Oladeji  Eniola Macellina,

The real estate market is so diverse and requires diverse skills to realize its full potential to all stakeholders in the industry. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the real estate sector is now the third largest sector of the economy, and its contribution is now overlapping the oil and gas sector, thereby making the real estate space a most lucrative industry to invest in at the moment.

With these positive developments in the real estate sector of the Nigerian economy, there is a need for continuous and improved skills for all cadres of professionals in the industry.  No doubt, the real estate industry is heading towards becoming the mainstay of the Nigerian economy soon, and there is a need for professionals in the industry to keep up-skilling for the enormous work ahead. Despite challenges such as declining purchasing power, Nigeria’s real estate sector continues to grow at an impressive pace. The sector expanded by 46.52% in nominal terms in Q3 2024, a significant increase from the previous year. This projection is a clear pointer to the fact that investment attention will be drawn to this sector by both private and institutional investors.

Continuous professional development of real estate professionals like estate surveyors and valuers, building engineers, architects, quantity surveyors, and allied professionals in the real estate space like marketing and sales professionals must be a continuous one as a way of addressing the skill gaps in the Nigerian real estate industry.

In the entire value chain of real estate business, from construction, and development to property management, marketing, and investment, upgrading skills and expertise is critical to driving long-term growth, encouraging innovation, and overcoming the myriad obstacles impeding the sector’s advancement. The current growth being witnessed in the industry will bring both opportunities and challenges, with the latter overlapping the former.

To achieve this up-skilling agenda in the real estate sector, professional bodies in the real estate sector must come up with training and re-training programmes and these skill acquisitions must be in line with modern trends in the global real estate market.

The government at all levels has a huge role to play in this regard. The real estate sector should be taken very seriously by the government with the establishment of training centres for real estate skill acquisition. This is paramount to the development and sustainability of the industry.  Tertiary institutions that are offering estate management and allied courses should align their syllabus with the current global real estate trends.

The benefits that will follow the skill development agenda in the real estate sector in Nigeria cannot be quantified. It will provide numerous benefits that can tremendously contribute to growth and diversification within the sector. The real estate industry is so diversified for all-inclusive participation for immediate and far-reaching returns.  These include increased sector growth, sustainability, and overall economic development, as well as improving the general standard of living for the populace. As the Nigerian government  keeps driving macroeconomic policies that will improve the economic fortunes of the country, the real estate sector is here to be a leading sector of the Nigerian economy in the near future.

ESV Oladeji  Eniola Macellina, a registered Estate Surveyor and Valuer, writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.