Everybody is a real estate investor because no matter what we do, whether banking, insurance or any type of business that is giving us monthly earnings it’s an investment. Imagine what is happening in the economy, the stock market and fixed deposit, people are losing their investment and their savings all over the world but one thing remains that is Real Estate. Either properties or rental properties, real estate is key even in the recession- GBADEWOLE AMOS.
The founder/CEO of Crown Luxury Property shared His investment story and how he has structured his own investment in such a way that is profitable to the investors.
Why Real Estate For You?
Once again I want to thank you for this great opportunity. During my NYSC period, I was saving two thousand naira every Friday which summed up to #180,000 at the end of my NYSC period. I came across the book that changed my life when we finished the orientation camp. We were asked to go and rest for one week before resuming to my NYSC job. So during the period, I was going to Ilorin where my parents were. I saw a book titled how I turned #750 to 80 million naira investing in real estate in 20 years. I collected the book from the guy, read it.
The summary of the book was about a guy that got a job with a bank in 1982, they gave them N1500 for wardrobe allowance then. The guy approached his uncle that he wanted to buy a Volkswagen beetle with the money he was given for allowance as he got the job in the bank then. Fortunately, his uncle advised him to take 750 naira to invest in Real Estate and use the balance N750 to do what he likes. The guy obeyed his uncle. He bought a busy land around Ikoyi, Lagos.
Then after 20 years, 2002 to be precise, there was a recession in the economy globally. Senior management staffs were asked to leave their jobs, everybody left but unfortunately for this guy he did not buy any property again since the last one he bought for the whole of the 20 years of service. He wasn’t investing anymore because at that time nothing was threatening his job and comfort.
Every senior staff who lost their jobs were given 5 million naira each as company's compensation. He didn’t have anything to fall back on and that was when he remembered that he had a property he bought for N750 in 1982. He went back to the property and was able to sell it for 80 million naira. With the money, He established his life. He used 40 million naira to build a house at his hometown and used the balance 40 million naira to start a business. I made a research about the man around 2012 the man was still doing fine.
The book caught my attention so much and I made up my mind that in this life I must invest in real estate and do well in real estate. From the money I saved, I used part of it to buy 6 plots of land at N17500 each in a non-strategic location in Abuja because I was just determined to buy land and own a property. The following year I started building the house at age 25, I finished the first house at age 28. That is how my real estate story started and since then I have never stopped investing. I have tried several businesses but none of them has given me rest of mind, assurance and fulfilment like real estate.
The part that got me is where you mentioned that you invested 6 plots of land with what you had. That is lovely because some people believe that some developers take money from people and use it to invest, that they don’t ever invest their own money but people’s money.
The difference is that as a developer, we are passionate about what we do. Now I am talking to you inside one of our projects, I live inside our estate. Anything we do for our clients, we do it in such a way that we can live where we’re taking people to. We are not just developers asking people to invest for their future, we are practising what we are teaching them.We are in a situation whereby it is almost certain that there is a change in the economy. What are your thoughts concerning the upcoming economic crisis and how one position themselves regarding real estate?
For the developers, this is not the period for competition as competition limits exploits and innovation. This is the time to bring into the market what people want and can afford. This is the time the middle class is going to shrink. One major thing is this, many people’s income will reduce and this is the time people don’t play with their income. They want to have excellent value for their money. So developers have to sit up and be serious. It is not the time for competitions but innovations are being needed because people will not give money to somebody that is not serious with his job. This is the time for developers to collaborate because presently with what is happening in the economy, this is the time to look inward so that we can influence the government decisions to favour our industry. I see what you’re doing and I appreciate what you are doing at this time this is the right thing to do at this time.
What will you say is the most significant strategy you have adopted in your journey and deployed in the cause of your business that’s parked to growth and progress we are seeing.
Crown Luxury Properties is a company that is dedicated to our customers. We are customer-centric. We treat our clients like we would treat ourselves. That is the secret. Presently, we have 7 estates in FCT, we have 4 in Lagos, 1 in Oshogbo and projects in Accra Ghana. This is not the time to do arm’s chair CEO. For anyone that wants to be successful in real estate, you have to be up-to-date. Sometimes I visit 4 to 5 sites.
What we deployed as a strategy as a company is to put our clients at the centre of every decision we are making and one of them is to make sure that we deliver on the infrastructure. Before you come, we have put everything in place. It will cost us lots of money to put all the infrastructure in place but all we do is to have goodwill. We work more on our clients. Our clients are satisfied and they bring their friends to patronize us and we are ready to satisfy their friends better than we do to them. That is one major secret we have.
Another one is timely delivery. The locations of our projects are prime. When the location is prime, customers will get higher value for their products. Then the way we deliver on our project, we build and the buildings are so fast. Some of our estates two years ago that we were selling a plot for N4.5 million are now been sold by our clients for 15 million naira and they are making about N10.5 million on N4.5 million investment in 24 months. That is one of our secrets.
If you deliver quality services, if buildings are rising up every day and at a fast speed, people will have high value for their money. If I want to invest in any property now I’ll prefer to invest in our own project. I invest in our projects as a customer. The seriousness on the area of customer satisfaction, delivery on the project is key. Location and documentation are very important and we need to make sure we take advantage of the referral system.
For the real estate market, are we in the dome or boom season?
Thank you Coach Chudi. Actually, from my own analysis, we have several schools of thoughts but I will say sincerely that this is a boom season for serious developers. The reason why I said that is this, presently globally, the price of oil has gone down and so attention is shifting from oil.
Secondly, money is always flowing it doesn’t stop. Money can only be redirected to another direction. If the velocity of money, that is, the money in circulation is not flowing to oil, it’s not flowing to fix deposit, it’s not flowing into treasury bills, it’s not flowing into Nigeria stock exchange, money is flowing somewhere. The high place where money has the highest value now is real estate.
If you were to advise the government based on the things you know, what would be the most significant concerning the real estate market?
Government has been doing well at the national level. My advice to the Federal government is to work more on providing enabling environment for real estate developers because at this critical time we need to look at other sectors of the economy for us to be able to generate revenue from the real estate sector. Land reform act has to be worked on and modified from the national assembly. The government should please give developers access to land. If we have access to land and infrastructure, we will be able to work as a team to provide affordable housing to Nigeria.
Till now, we still have more than 17 million housing deficit in Nigeria. The total number of houses developers build according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics in Nigeria is still on the average of 100 houses per annum. So, for us to work together, we need to adjust and redefine the land use act. The government needs to work with developers to provide affordable housing and infrastructure so that serviced apartments will be available at affordable prices.
If you had an opportunity of restarting in real estate, how would you start?
Starting all over again might not be very smooth. But starting again will be easier than before because we have the capacity now. I will start little and grow up while putting my integrity intact. I’ll make sure I have good conscience. The same way I treat myself, I’ll treat my customers. I’ll start with what I have, I will not go around borrowing. I’ll treat my customers well and focus on integrity.
When you give your contributions to the government, do you do that because you want government recognition?
To be sincere, the government is very important in anything we do. We cannot do without the government because they regulate our industry, they have the team that approve our buildings, making sure our survey and everything is in place in the government offices. We respect the government a lot, but I’ve always been interested in giving to the government by playing our part.
We have never been in the business to seek government attention or make them come to us. But fortunately, we’ve been fortunate to attract their attention by the way we treat the environment where our locations are and we’ve been able to do one or two things with the government. It is a great privilege, but we’ve never gone out with the intention of falling after the government. They come to us based on their perception of what they see us stand for.
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All this na story
If money no dey dreams no dey come through