This is a very interesting thread: thankfully still with its head above water and no insults!

Considering making a choice with renovating and building new, I would opt for renovation especially with the old buildings that we find in many of our city centres. The workmanship is often excellent, and the renovation needed could be minimal, and affect only the interior spaces. I am shocked that people buy up buildings in historic centres and tear them down completely to build monstrosities all in the name of "modernisation" and "big boyism" (did i spell that right?). Some things just cannot be bought with all the money in the world and tearing down the evidence of building construction history in our cities is not going to help us in the long term.

Finally Brabus, concerning the terrace building image you have shared, quick question from a technical point of view: I notice that there is extensive glazing around the building and what comes to my mind immediately is thermal gain in the interiors: what mechanism, other than mechanical, is in place to ensure that the interiors are cool through out the building (i notice that the courtyard in the centre appears to provide some shading for the windows on tht side but it is not so evident on the left hand view).

thanks again for this interesting topic, ;

pls can i build a 2bedrm apartment in lagos for 3m naira, including land

^^^Go to Imota, you can get cheap plot and build 2 bedroom bungalow with something a little bit more than the budgeted N3m including govt approvals.

brabus:

^^^Excellent piece!

To add to it, Mr. B (Brabus) is already regretting the decision to site his house in the location where it was. My house now happened to be the most expensive, beautiful, solid, well crafted house in the locality.

Am Alone said something about this sometimes ago.
I've had to part with my money to do road, erect electricity poles, drainage construction and even give facelift to some of the houses in other to step close.

If I had to do it again, I'll have a rethink.

LOCATION is king!

Mr Brabus, am sure with your knowledge and few sacrifices here and there, you will contribute to the development of that area till such a time when you'll look back and it will be worth it. This may sound childish, but maybe you can find a way to draw "good" homeowners to your street? Area? If you bring 3 people that have the builds, they will attract 3 more, and the three will attract another sets. Sometimes, we have to recognize when the time for negotiation ends, and stop deliberating, waiting and hoping for good to come to us, we should simply just take things by the horn, grabbing even, to protect the precious lifetime investment such as a home.

For instance, you're a builder, you know your terrain. So maybe you can buy a land or two around your area. Fence it round with beautiful trees, block fencing may be too much cost. Then invite a nairaland member to visit, or just put up the land for sale with pictures, encourage them to build, give support, information as much as you can. Once they start building something nice, you have won two good people over to your area. They may bring two more with them. Like attracts like. It's the law of nature.

spyder880:

For me, location is king if am hunting for a commercial property, but when its a place I will live, I can choose anywhere like the bush I am currently building. I hated the thought of getting too close to the road with all those long trucks blaring their rude horns and seeing ladies of the night walking along my front gate, what about those worship centres and their loud speakers forcing you to listen or the music sellers making sure you will not have a decent sleep?
Since I started my house some other important people has started buying lands around me. The price of a plot in that neighborhood has jumped from the N600k I paid for it last year April to N1.5m now. Location matters but not to every buyer, a client once told me he is in love with nature and will want to live in a place where he can still hear the chirpping of birds and the cry of other animals.

Seconded! No place like nature. Even then, some people love the city life with its noise. I prefer nature too for home. For business, city of course. It goes back to what we've been talking about, that the need of each individual should be clearly define first before hunting for land or property to buy/build.

There is really nothing like bush. Nature is vast and bountiful and it should be appreciated. The fear we sometimes harbor is not with the bush, but with the inhabitants of the bush. The bush is harmless and with little care will become a beautiful landmark. It is the type of people who may migrate to the bush that gives us sleepless nights. If I paint my house and decorate my curb and the houses in front or besides me decides to sell plantain and lit her wares with "kerosene lantern at night". Where does that leave me? Down to her level of course.

For instance, take Maryland Estate in Lagos. It is suppose to be a really nice area, and some of the homes there are superb to say the least. But imagine, the entrance to the estate is full of newspapers sellers, orange sellers, pepper and crayfish sellers, all sorts. But that's not really harmful in itself that they sell things. Just wait till evening when each seller lights their kerosene lanterns, and the air pollution is a real eyesore! How many minutes does it take you to drive from the entrance to your house? Try 30minutes. Why? Because somebody is buying fish in front of you and she's waiting on okada to get her change. And so on.

Yesternite, I discussed the pros and cons of New Builds and Renovations with my dad (a retired architect/builder), and this is his response.

"With an existing building you're stuck with entrances, ground floor spaces, relationship to garden, stair location, even kitchen, so building a new house is the best way to gain value, even in the short term"

From all those anaylisis, what is the best?

Buying New Building or Renovating old ones.

rastaman20:

From all those anaylisis, what is the best?

Buying New Building or Renovating old ones.

@rastaman, lol.

An elder who's probably seen it all just gave his own opinion (read Braubus response). So to give a more direct answer may be seen as misleading. So the final decision still lies with the homeowner. To build new where you can achieve all your dreams, floor plans, integrity of raw materials, finishings, location, etc. And most importantly to achieve your dream, not work with another man's dream.

Or to Renovate and build on an existing floor plan and alter every aspect till you're satisfied with final result, and still achieve your dream.

So, it depends, what do we need to achieve? What's the plan? A business for profit? Or a home for peace and tranquility? The need will determine what we go for. One way some people have been able to tackle having undesirable people ending up beside their homes or streets is to buy lands and resell to friends and other people that will bring value to the neighborhood. This may be seen as callous.

Other ways is to buy, build, and pray that like-minds will find you and construct nice buildings that will complement yours. But as we pray and hope, we should remember that GOD will answer everybody equally, even those with sparse means, so if all they can afford to build is wood homes beside a giant mansion, well, hey, what's one to do?

Renovating is not a way to cut corners. It requires careful planning and execution. And not all buildings are worth renovating. You may just be paying for the area, the location. If it will be too much headache to build on the existing structure, you pull down and start afresh, so it's like paying for the land only. That way, there's no need to peep at the new owners next to your house and wonder if they'll be erecting 8 Bedroom flats on 120X60 plots, and even manage to have 2 floors boys-quarters at the back, all for rent!!

So from a quiet street, you now end up with 10 tenants bounty overnight! Haleluyah! That is like buy 1 get 9 free.

shopclue:

@rastaman, lol.

An elder who's probably seen it all just gave his own opinion (read Braubus response). So to give a more direct answer may be seen as misleading. So the final decision still lies with the homeowner. To build new where you can achieve all your dreams, floor plans, integrity of raw materials, finishings, location, etc. And most importantly to achieve your dream, not work with another man's dream.

Or to Renovate and build on an existing floor plan and alter every aspect till you're satisfied with final result, and still achieve your dream.

So, it depends, what do we need to achieve? What's the plan? A business for profit? Or a home for peace and tranquility? The need will determine what we go for. One way some people have been able to tackle having undesirable people ending up beside their homes or streets is to buy lands and resell to friends and other people that will bring value to the neighborhood. This may be seen as callous.

Other ways is to buy, build, and pray that like-minds will find you and construct nice buildings that will complement yours. But as we pray and hope, we should remember that GOD will answer everybody equally, even those with sparse means, so if all they can afford to build is wood homes beside a giant mansion, well, hey, what's one to do?

Renovating is not a way to cut corners. It requires careful planning and execution. And not all buildings are worth renovating. You may just be paying for the area, the location. If it will be too much headache to build on the existing structure, you pull down and start afresh, so it's like paying for the land only. That way, there's no need to peep at the new owners next to your house and wonder if they'll be erecting 8 Bedroom flats on 120X60 plots, and even manage to have 2 floors boys-quarters at the back, all for rent!!

So from a quiet street, you now end up with 10 tenants bounty overnight! Haleluyah! That is like buy 1 get 9 free.

Thanks alot for Breaking down all that cons and dons, becuase my aims are buying an old one renovate either i sell out or lent. and also to buy a land and build too. so all those analysis have been taken.
Like what i have learnt so far,, all depend on the location first, then your pocket join the clue. .

Below is my last post about 2 months ago.

Yesternite, I discussed the pros and cons of New Builds and Renovations with my dad (a retired architect/builder), and this is his response.

"With an existing building you're stuck with entrances, ground floor spaces, relationship to garden, stair location, even kitchen, so building a new house is the best way to gain value, even in the short term"

I cannot agree less that my dad is absolutely right. I'd taken up a renovation project recently which had rubbished all that I've built over time.

This time - my dad's response was ", until you tow the line, you'll never understand how rough the road is. There's no school for experience - you acquire it."

Now that I've seen the rough side, I think its good to share the lessons learnt and how I think a contractor should deal with a TYPICAL Nigerian client.

1. Unforeseen Structural Problems

Until you open the floors and the walls, you can never be sure how much it will cost if you are renovating an older house. A typical house inspection when you are making a quote cannot find all the problems. It will NEVER!

2. Unrealistic Budget for what your client want

Honestly, most Nigerians do not know how pricey building our ideal house can be. As a result, we tend to think one price fits all. When you tow this line, my advice is that you get everything out in writing. If it is an AC you are buying. It will be good to write out the make, the size, the features and all the miscellaneous. I'm sure if I'd done it that way, I won't be recounting my losses now.



Being Carried Away

You need to take into account that the expense does not stop at buying materials alone. Be sure you budget very well for revisions, the cost of replacing one tile may be more than the cost of installing 10sqm.

You don't try to impress anybody. This is Nigeria!

Merry Christmas from the NextHome Team

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Buying a Land or Building in Lagos: Know the Setback Requirements.

Planning is a system that orders the use and development of land for the benefit of our communities. The overall aim of planning is to ensure a balance between enabling development while at the same time conserving and protecting the environment and local amenities. The idea is to create better and balanced environment for people to live, work, play, pray, recreate and move around with utmost ease.

https://nexthomedesigns.com/2016/05/26/building-in-lagos-know-the-setback-requirements/

NextHome:
Below is my last post about 2 months ago.

Yesternite, I discussed the pros and cons of New Builds and Renovations with my dad (a retired architect/builder), and this is his response.

"With an existing building you're stuck with entrances, ground floor spaces, relationship to garden, stair location, even kitchen, so building a new house is the best way to gain value, even in the short term"

I cannot agree less that my dad is absolutely right. I'd taken up a renovation project recently which had rubbished all that I've built over time.

This time - my dad's response was ", until you tow the line, you'll never understand how rough the road is. There's no school for experience - you acquire it."

Now that I've seen the rough side, I think its good to share the lessons learnt and how I think a contractor should deal with a TYPICAL Nigerian client.

1. Unforeseen Structural Problems

Until you open the floors and the walls, you can never be sure how much it will cost if you are renovating an older house. A typical house inspection when you are making a quote cannot find all the problems. It will NEVER!

2. Unrealistic Budget for what your client want

Honestly, most Nigerians do not know how pricey building our ideal house can be. As a result, we tend to think one price fits all. When you tow this line, my advice is that you get everything out in writing. If it is an AC you are buying. It will be good to write out the make, the size, the features and all the miscellaneous. I'm sure if I'd done it that way, I won't be recounting my losses now.



Being Carried Away

You need to take into account that the expense does not stop at buying materials alone. Be sure you budget very well for revisions, the cost of replacing one tile may be more than the cost of installing 10sqm.

You don't try to impress anybody. This is Nigeria!

Story.

Buy and renovate is better. Building from scratch will land you in intensive care unit at the hospital.

I am confused as to whether to build or renovate. I need opinion from professionals

Ibusho:
I am confused as to whether to build or renovate. I need opinion from professionals

Personally, I prefer to buy and renovate... I can't stand a percentage of problematic lands not to even talk of omonile wahala or real estate hidden maintenance charges per year. When I buy to renovate I've crossed those bridges of stress and heart attack..

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