The real estate industry in Nigeria is a very alluring industry.

This is not surprising, as the industry is very lucrative and has created many millionaires and billionaires.

But, just like any industry, as much as it appears like an all-comers affair, it is anything but that.

If you must succeed in real estate in Nigeria, you need to know exactly how to start and succeed in it.

As much as the real estate industry in Nigeria has produced many millionaires and billionaires, there have also been many victims who have gotten their fingers terribly burnt because they did not know how to succeed in the real estate industry of Africa’s biggest economy!

So, how do you start and succeed in real estate in Nigeria?

Before we answer that question, we need to understand what real estate means, as well as the types of real estate. What is real estate you might ask: real estate may be defined as the land with all the improvements that human activities added to that land such as perimeter fencing, building, landscaping, farm ranches etc. real estate also include natural resources beneath the ground such as minerals, crops. The improvements to land from human activities can also be beneath the ground such as water pipes or sewage tanks

Fundamentally, there are 6 types of real estate:

1. RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE

2. COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

3. INDUSTRIAL REAL ESTATE

4. AGRICULTURAL REAL ESTATE

5. MIXED-USE REAL ESTATE

6. SPECIAL USE REAL ESTATE

1.RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE

Residential real are properties in the residential category. This is the most important part of real estate. This type of real estate caters for homeownership and reduction of the housing deficit gap.

Broadly speaking there are two (2) main types of residential real estate:

1. Single Family Homes

2. Multi-family homes

Single-family homes may include detached or attached homes such as Duplexes and Townhouses while Multi-family homes are apartment buildings that usually allow many families to obtain housing units in a building. Many investors looking to maximize rental income usually favour apartment buildings in their property asset acquisition because it guarantees multiple streams of rental income from various tenant families in such rental apartment buildings.



2. COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Commercial Real estate is a type of property that is used for the purpose of business or various forms of commercial activities such as office spaces, shopping centres, Parking Lot, Malls, Stores, and entertainment facilities such as Cinemas, Studios, hotels, motels,

3.INDUSTRIAL REAL ESTATE is the type of real estate that is used for manufacturing or industrial activities. These include properties such as warehouses, powerplants, factories, tank farms etc. Industrial real estate is about the least talked about real estate but it is an equally important real estate that should not be overlooked.

4.MIXED-USE REAL ESTATE is the type of property that has multiple uses. When commercial and residential activities occur in the same property such property is said to have mixed-use.

5.AGRICULTURAL REAL ESTATE is the type of land and property used for the purpose of providing crops, raise animals and plants. An investor might buy, sell or lease land for agricultural purposes these include farmlands and ranches.

6.SPECIAL PURPOSE REAL ESTATE: These are the type of property that is usually publicly held such as places of religion, schools, government buildings, cemeteries and recreational parks.

So, how do you start and succeed in real estate in Nigeria?

First, Identify the aspect of real estate you want to focus on.

Practically speaking there are about 5 ways of making money from real estate:

These are:

1. Real Estate Speculation

2. Rental income

3. Property development

4. Property Flipping

5. Real Estate Brokerage

REAL ESTATE SPECULATION

You can earn income via real estate speculation. You can become a real estate speculator by buying property, holding it for a period and then selling it after the property price appreciates in value.

RENTAL INCOME

You can also earn income via rental income. This refers to buying rental income-generating property and making money from the rent paid by your tenants. The rental income here refers to income earned by the rental of real estate.

PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT

You can also earn income via property development. As a property developer, you can buy land, build residential apartment blocks on them, and then sell each apartment at a premium price to recover your capital and make a profit too. This is for the big boys and is consequently cost-intensive.

PROPERTY FLIPPING

You can also earn income via property flipping. Property flipping refers to the art of buying an old property, renovating it, and selling it.

It is not unusual for an old property in a choice location to be undervalued because it has become old. As an investor desirous of earning revenue from property flipping, you can identify such property, buy them at their reduced and under-valued price, renovate them and sell them. After the renovation, because the property is already in a choice location, the value of the property is bound to soar. You can proceed to make your profit from the sold property and move on to the next one.

PROPERTY BROKERAGE

Lastly, you can earn an income via property brokerage. This requires that you facilitate a real estate sales transaction and earn a fraction of the value involved as sales commission. A person who engages in this is called a realtor.

Written by Dr Freeman Osonuga

Dr Freeman Osonuga is a Multi-award winning Nigerian Real Estate Investor, Advisor and Broker. He is a global leader who effortlessly dons many caps and has made an easy meal of successfully being a Real Estate Broker, Philanthropist, Best-selling Author, International Public Speaker, Medical Doctor and a successful entrepreneur in all his strides.

Wow

The real estate industry in Nigeria is a very alluring industry.

This is not surprising, as the industry is very lucrative and has created many millionaires and billionaires.

But, just like any industry, as much as it appears like an all-comers affair, it is anything but that.

If you must succeed in real estate in Nigeria, you need to know exactly how to start and succeed in it.

As much as the real estate industry in Nigeria has produced many millionaires and billionaires, there have also been many victims who have gotten their fingers terribly burnt because they did not know how to succeed in the real estate industry of Africa’s biggest economy!
So, how do you start and succeed in real estate in Nigeria?

Before we answer that question, we need to understand what real estate means, as well as the types of real estate.

Real estate refers to real—that is, tangible—property made up of land as well as anything on it, including buildings, animals, and natural resources.

Fundamentally, there are 4 types of real estate:

• Residential real estate: These refer to any physical space that people reside and live on either alone or with their families. It is where people literally make their homes and come back to sleep every night. It refers to physical spaces made of houses that are ‘homes’. These types of property tend to be situated in secluded areas for the purpose of security, serenity, and nearness to nature.

• Commercial real estate: These includes shopping centres and strip malls, medical and educational buildings, hotels and offices. These are physical spaces where people put up to basically conduct their day-to-day business, either in services or products. They tend to be nearer major roads and markets for the sake of accessibility by all and sundry.
• Industrial real estate: These are physical locations, lands, resources and structures that house only one aggregated industry, ensuring the industry in question can enjoy the economics of scale associated with localization of industry. Examples include Computer Village, Ladipo, Alaba, Trade Fair.
• Land: This is general land irrespective of where it is situated. This does not have any structure on it. The only tangible thing about it is the bare earth and space over which the bare earth on it stretches. These lands can eventually be converted to the above mentioned three uses, or to becoming farmlands for agriculture.

So, how do you start and succeed in real estate in Nigeria?

First, Identify your motivation.
The importance of motivation cannot be overemphasized. Motivation is what keeps you going when you face setbacks, disappointments, challenges, delayals, and every other possible stumbling block you may encounter in your journey. Motivation ensures that you not only keep going notwithstanding the challenges but that you keep going because of these challenges. As rewarding as the real estate industry may be, it is not a get rich quick scheme. Remember it primarily involves selling. A lot of selling. And selling is usually not easy at first. In fact, it can be downright very frustrating. However, if you have motivation, you will stay driven and focused on your goal, till they are achieved. Your motivation may be to escape poverty, or to quit 9-5 employment, or to help people access homes, or to be able to be an employer of labour. Whatever it is, find it and hold on to it. Because you will always need it if you must succeed in real estate in Nigeria.

Second, Identify the aspect of real estate you want to focus on.
As mentioned earlier, there are four types of real estate in Nigeria. And within those four types of estate, there are many ways to earn income from them.
You can earn income via real estate speculation. You can become a real estate speculator by buying property, holding it for a period and then selling it after the property price appreciates in value.
You can also earn income via rental income. This refers to buying rental income-generating property and making money from the rent paid by your tenants. The rental income here refers to income earned by the rental of real estate.
You can also earn income via property development. As a property developer, you can buy land, build residential apartment blocks on them, and then sell each apartment at a premium price to recover your capital and make a profit too. This is for the big boys and is consequently cost-intensive.
You can also earn income via property flipping. Property flipping refers to the art of buying an old property, renovating it, and selling it.
It is not unusual for an old property in a choice location to be undervalued because it has become old. As an investor desirous of earning revenue from property flipping, you can identify such property, buy them at their reduced and under-valued price, renovate them and sell them. After the renovation, because the property is already in a choice location, the value of the property is bound to soar. You can proceed to make your profit from the sold property and move on to the next one.
Lastly, you can earn an income via property brokerage. This requires that you facilitate a real estate sales transaction and earn a fraction of the value involved as sales commission. A person who engages in this is called a realtor.

Third, acquire relevant knowledge.
One of the major reasons why a lot of people fail in business is because they do not know enough about the business. Lack of product and market knowledge is a big problem indeed. It is not enough to know about real estate, you need to invest in studying how the mind of the average real estate consumer works. You also need to know the dynamics of the market, its peak season, and its slow season. You need to know what the policy of the government of the day is regarding the industry and how it impacts your business. The quest and need for relevant knowledge should be a never-ending one. However, enough of it is needed in the beginning to position you to succeed in real estate in Nigeria.

Fourth, have a plan.
He who fails to plan plans to fail. If you must succeed in real estate in Nigeria, you must have a plan. You cannot afford to act spontaneously and depend on hope, chance, or fate to give you success. You need to have a well-detailed plan that clearly articulates why you are into real estate, what you hope to achieve, how you plan to achieve it, and your exit plan as well. The plan guides you and ensures you do not stray off course particularly when you are faced with challenges, or temptation to drift away. The plan also helps you measure the success of your activity to ensure that you are truly making progress.

Fifthly, find a mentor.
Whatever you are trying to achieve in real estate, someone else has achieved it too. It, therefore, makes sense to identify this person and learn the ropes from him or her and have them mentor you. The mentorship does not necessarily have to be physical. You can be mentored by their materials, books, and interviews. All these would give you an insight into how their mind works, what guides their decision making, as well as show you what they did and how they did it to get successful.

Six, build relationships.
In real estate, relationships are everything. You may have heard the saying that your network is your net worth. This is truest in real estate. Relationships ensure that even when you do not make a sale today to a client or a prospect, you are guaranteed to make that sale as soon as the prospect is able to make the purchase. It also ensures that even prospects, acquaintances and friends who are unable to patronize you today for whatever reason, would not hesitate to become your brand evangelists, referring you to all and sundry.

Seventh, Leverage digital media.
Digital media is an excellent tool that levels the playing ground and bringing everybody around the world closer than ever. It also makes communication and advertising easier for everybody whether you have deep pockets or not. You can leverage your website, blog, social media accounts, and other platforms such as WhatsApp and Tik-Tok to reach both close and wide audiences. Digital media also ensures that you do not need to rent a shop or office to start, as all these platforms give you the opportunity to talk about and display what you have to offer the world.

Lastly, Be patient.
Success in real estate is a hurdle, not a sprint. Therefore, success needs to be built on all the aforementioned principles. It must be built delicately and painstakingly over a period. A quick check of all the real estate gurus, entrepreneurs and billionaires around the world would quickly show that none of them built their empires overnight. They worked hard, they worked smart, and they worked long. If you must succeed in real estate in Nigeria, you must put in the work, but more importantly, you must be patient.

BOOK REVIEW – PRINT MONEY WITH ZERO CAPITAL AND THE BUSINESS GAME CHANGER

I came across these lovely books written by Dr Freeman Osonuga the Nigerian Doctor who turned into a real estate guru and I couldn’t help but stop to read these books and I was glad that I did.

A lot has been happening in the real estate space and I felt it was high time I learnt more about how to make more money from that sector. One amazing thing that caught my attention was the catching title of the books, they were one of those books you would definitely pick off the bookshelf and I did.

The book was very precise, interesting, engaging, easy to read and understand, one that won’t take you more than a day or two to digest and sincerely I totally enjoyed every bit of his books.

The first book Print Money with zero Capital was precisely 80 pages, which was brief and explanatory, the book explained what it entailed to start and grow a real estate business from ground zero. The book explained that real estate was the money-spinning machine, it went on to explain how you could earn 7 digit figures from nothing initially. He went further to explain that to earn this kind of mega income you had to be a professional and not a novice, detailing every single aspect of what makes real estate the real deal.

Dr Freeman mentioned the marketing secrets in the real estate business that made you outstanding stating clearly that you have to dress and look the talk, if you would need to sell millions; you need to look like a millionaire and not like someone coming to beg for help. I absolutely enjoyed the teachings on understanding how networking works and that your network is your net worth.

He further explained why you needed to keep long term relationships with your clients, not just one-off sales, for me was just inevitable, having to be in sales for years I found all the points very insightful. He lastly mentioned and taught the Realtor's toolbox, which I found very useful.

Dr Freeman said in his book and I quote “Real estate brokerage when done right, as you will realize later in this book, gives every enterprising individual the ability to achieve time and financial freedom. So you have plenty of money in your pockets with ample time for yourself and your family. From medical practice, I transitioned into the real estate industry in Nigeria- July 2016 as a rookie.”

The Business Game was also very simple and insightful Dr Freeman broke down the business dynamics making it so easy to digest and comprehend. The 36 pages book explained the genesis of all businesses, growing your business from nothing to a billion-dollar company, the typical journey of a small business from startup stage to multibillion-dollar enterprise, the life cycle of this business as you transcend, the top secrets of outstanding business owners and finally why you should stop complaining and just get to it.

One quote from his book I liked was that of Mark Zuckerberg the great Tech guy I quote “In a world that changes really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks”.

Well on a final note I found this book very brief, precise and interesting, the author did try to break every single term in simple ways anyone could read and understand.

Both books were very insightful most especially if you wanted to go into the real estate business or understand how the business life cycle works, did I enjoy this simple book yes of course and would recommend this book, definitely I would, so if you want to understand the real estate sector and how to move from zero to a 7 digit figure within a short time then this is the book for you to study and digest.

Linda Ochugbua
Digital Sales Manager BusinessDay
Anchor growing your business with Linda Podcast.

The importance of Land Titles cannot be overemphasized.

People who have taken it for granted have either lost a lot of money or found themselves embroiled in unnecessary litigation.
Before you acquire any property, it is pertinent that you ask, know and verify what title comes with the property. It is always best to investigate before you invest.

However, even when you have verified what kind of title comes with your acquired property, you also need to know how that title impacts your property.

Historically, all lands belong to the indigenous families dwelling on such lands but the Land Use Act, enacted in 1978 vested all urban land within a state in the state governor to hold on behalf of the people, and as such the governor is therefore responsible for allocation of land in all urban areas to individuals resident in the state or to organizations for residential, agricultural, commercial, and other purposes.
Specifically, there are different types of land titles a land may have, and consequently different impacts on the said land.

FREE OR UNDER ACQUISITION
A free land is that which the government has not indicated any interest in, while a land is said to be under government acquisition if the government has an interest in the area for the purpose of urban development or industrialization projects.

GLOBAL ACQUISITION OR COMMITTED ACQUISITION
The land under government acquisition can either be global acquisition or committed acquisition. The land with committed acquisition means the government has designated that parcel for a specific project as such those parcels of land can never be released to individuals or organizations for development projects. Acquiring lands that are under committed acquisition will eventually lead to the loss of such investments when government moves to take full possession of such a parcel of land.

Whereas a land under global acquisition does not have a specific government purpose yet and as such those parcels of land can be later be free or committed as the case maybe.

There are 2 main processes for making a land under global acquisition to be free.
1. Excision and
2. Ratification.

EXCISION AND GAZETTE
To excise a land means to cut it. This is the process whereby the government releases a parcel of land back to the indigenous owners of such lands for the purpose of residential and commercial developments. When this excised parcel of land is published in government official gazette such a land is said to have Gazette as title. Excision and gazette are very good titles for a piece of land; such lands are safe to buy and develop. The gazette then becomes the title on the land and such land is safe to buy because a proper title can be processed on the land.

CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY
This is the most popular land title most people are familiar with. It’s a very good title. Lands with Certificate of Occupancy are extremely safe to invest in. A Certificate of Occupancy is usually issued by the State Government and it connotes that the state government has officially leased the piece of land to the applicant, for 99 years.

GOVERNOR’S CONSENT
When a land with Certificate of Occupancy is sold to another person it is required that such a person must now obtain the Consent of the Governor before that transaction can be deemed legal in the eyes of the Government. As the name sounds, a governor’s consent means the governor consented to the transaction; the transfer of ownership of a parcel of land with certificate of Occupancy from one person to the other.

REGISTERED DEED OF ASSIGNMENT
A Deed of Assignment is an agreement between the owner and seller of the property and the buyer of the property showing that the seller has transferred all his rights, title interest and ownership to the buyer. Upon the exchange of the deed of assignment, and the registration of the document at the land registry, the land or property becomes completely and legally owned by the buyer of the property.

Written by Dr Freeman Osonuga
Dr Freeman Osonuga is a Multi-award winning Nigerian Real Estate Investor, Advisor and Broker. He is a global leader who effortlessly dons many caps and has made an easy meal of successfully being a Real Estate Broker, Philanthropist, Best-selling Author, International Public Speaker, Medical Doctor and a successful entrepreneur in all his strides.

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