A friend of mine just bought a property in Kent. A couple sold their 3 bedroom flat because the kids have left home and they needed a smaller space. A regular occurrence there. It will not happen here for many reasons: culture, lack of a good mortgage market and poor planning.

Another friend of mine built a castle in Nigeria. He lives in UK. His kids were born there. They( kids)have no plans of returning home. My friend was sad. He wanted to retire to Nigeria but he is worried about access to good healthcare because he has NHS over there. He begs people to use the Castle.

Across the country as you travel to the hinterlands, you see many mansions falling apart. In partial or full ruins. Homes that were once architectural masterpieces.

The biggest reason is not poor inheritance planning. The biggest reason is why they were built in the first place. Money is funny and magical, when you have it, you assume you will always have it. Then you raise your lifestyle to your earnings. Then money goes or diminishes. You can’t maintain homes you have built. You can’t sell them because the design is peculiar or it’s in a location where everyone wants to build theirs from scratch.

The other is that in many cases, our kids do not care for those huge mansions. They want somewhere else or smaller accommodations or can’t just afford to maintain the homes.

A client built a mansion in Oyo. He wanted me to find a buyer based on his cost. Impossible to achieve, people do not want to buy family homes. Then cost is far from value.

We should learn when we can. That nothing is forever. That our dreams are not the same that our children have. That we will die.

Does this mean people shouldn’t build state of the art buildings? Do whatever makes you happy but think it through properly.

I don’t know why Tewogbade’s home is in ruins. But they are all over the country. Mansions in terrible conditions.

©️ Olubadan

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