₦airaland Forum

This topic has generated a lot of controversy on social media platforms such as facebook, instagram, youtube etc.

While many people argue that investing your money back home in Nigeria via building houses, establishing other businesses are better than buying a house abroad and spending the rest of you life paying mortgage; others believe that the wisest thing to do when you come abroad is to invest in buying a house and paying mortgage.

While none of the two is better in absolute terms, circumstances of each individual must be brought into any consideration.

In your opinion, which do you consider better than the other and why?

How do you finance a house in Nigeria? Which bank will give you 30-year mortgage?

DoctorStanley:
How do you finance a house in Nigeria? Which bank will give you 30-year mortgage?

Building/buying a house in Nigeria vs mortgage abroad.

Usefulsense:
Building/buying a house in Nigeria vs mortgage abroad.

The idea is that u don't have the money upfront. If you have the money upfront of course you build/buy - unless you have a better investment for the money

If you are building a house in Nigeria for your parents then definitely it’s a good idea . However, if you’re building as an investment then it’s a terrible decision.

If you live abroad legally having mortgage is one of the best investments you could make, you will pay rent for life but mortgage has a time limit

justwise:
If you are building a house in Nigeria for your parents then definitely it’s a good idea . However, if you’re building as an investment then it’s a terrible decision.

If you live abroad legally having mortgage is one of the best investments you could make, you will pay rent for life but mortgage has a time limit

You nailed it.

Talking from my personal experience, acquiring a property abroad is an itch free process compared to acquiring one in Nigeria depending on location, in a place like Lagos, it is a very rigorous process. Deciding to have a property at home while living abroad may not be for economic reasons but more for emotional satisfaction and for a sense of self fulfilment.

I said acquiring property abroad is an itch free process because once you`ve sealed a deal on a property no matter how you decided to finance it, through mortgage payment or otherwise, once your name is entered in what is called "Grundbuch" , it is remains your property, every kobo you drop in financing the property will be accounted for. in contrast to this, i remenber making a deposit in the early 90`s for the National Housing Scheme in Nigeria , the scheme never came to fruition and deposit was not refunded.

If you mortgage a home abroad, you don`t necessarily need your whole life to pay off your mortgage. Dont buy a too expensive property. It is better and very feasible to heve a property both abroad and at home.

OkanlawonB:
Talking from my personal experience, acquiring a property abroad is an itch free process compared to acquiring one in Nigeria depending on location, in a place like Lagos, it is a very rigorous process. Deciding to have a property at home while living abroad may not be for economic reasons but more for emotional satisfaction and for a sense of self fulfilment.

I said acquiring property abroad is an itch free process because once you`ve sealed a deal on a property no matter how you decided to finance it, through mortgage payment or otherwise, once your name is entered in what is called "Grundbuch" , it is remains your property, every kobo you drop in financing the property will be accounted for. in contrast to this, i remenber making a deposit in the early 90`s for the National Housing Scheme in Nigeria , the scheme never came to fruition and deposit was not refunded.

If you mortgage a home abroad, you don`t necessarily need your whole life to pay off your mortgage. Dont buy a too expensive property. It is better and very feasible to heve a property both abroad and at home.

Thank you sir.

You live abroad so the logical thing to do is to get that mortgage if you have the time or money. Building a house for investment in Nigeria majority of the time makes no economic sense. House of 70-80m will be yielding 3-5m rent a year. While the tenant slowly damage it

OkanlawonB:
Talking from my personal experience, acquiring a property abroad is an itch free process compared to acquiring one in Nigeria depending on location, in a place like Lagos, it is a very rigorous process. Deciding to have a property at home while living abroad may not be for economic reasons but more for emotional satisfaction and for a sense of self fulfilment.

I said acquiring property abroad is an itch free process because once you`ve sealed a deal on a property no matter how you decided to finance it, through mortgage payment or otherwise, once your name is entered in what is called "Grundbuch" , it is remains your property, every kobo you drop in financing the property will be accounted for. in contrast to this, i remenber making a deposit in the early 90`s for the National Housing Scheme in Nigeria , the scheme never came to fruition and deposit was not refunded.

If you mortgage a home abroad, you don`t necessarily need your whole life to pay off your mortgage. Dont buy a too expensive property. It is better and very feasible to heve a property both abroad and at home.

Spot on. My dad also made deposits into the National Housing Scheme in the early 90s, didn’t get anything out of it.

Usefulsense:
This topic has generated a lot of controversy on social media platforms such as facebook, instagram, youtube etc.

While many people argue that investing your money back home in Nigeria via building houses, establishing other businesses are better than buying a house abroad and spending the rest of you life paying mortgage; others believe that the wisest thing to do when you come abroad is to invest in buying a house and paying mortgage.

While none of the two is better in absolute terms, circumstances of each individual must be brought into any consideration.

In your opinion, which do you consider better than the other and why?

There’s no one size fit all solution to this topic, several factors (Age, family size, family background, ties to home, funding, retirement plans etc) would affect the decision on where to have your assets/properties.

Older folks in their 50s with plans to retire back to Nigeria would most likely want to build and invest back home as they might not find it smart to get into a 25 year mortgage, while younger folks (30s) would likely prefer to invest abroad.

As the poster above stated, it depends on many factors. Some who japa'd have vowed never to visit, let alone return to Nigeria. Another factor is the current country of residence outside Nigeria. I posit that Nigerians in Anglophone countries would (they should actually sef) rather purchase a house via mortgage than build in Nigeria. Those in non-Anglophone countries would build in Nigeria, no brainer. Family ties as well. How many siblings does the person have? How close are they? What about extended relatives? Do the parents have more than one house in Nigeria?

Most importantly, is the person willing or interested in returning to Nigeria in about a decade or two? This is where the country of one's present residence comes into play.

Do both:

Let the property you buy abroad finance your properties back home. Rent them out. And remember that not every house costs a half million. And the cheap houses aren't all in bad areas or the middle of nowhere. You can also find cheap condos. There's tons of them.

People abroad don't buy these homes because their fragile ego dictates that they buy stuff they can show off instead of something that makes them financially comfortable.

Furthermore, if you know anything about carpentry, electrical, and plumbing, you can buy a house abroad with a tiny salary. For example, Detroit, Michigan is almost giving houses away:

The city of Detroit has this land bank, and you can buy houses for as little as $500 or $1000 (USD). The reason it exists is because the city had a rough time economically, and many people left. This resulted in tons of abandoned homes, which became violent drug dens. After a high profile crime, a millionaire partnered with the city to buy up these places and offer them cheap, so the right sorts of people could acquire them and revitalize the area.

These homes are obviously not in pristine condition, so it's only for people who either can do carpentry/electrical/plumbing/HVAC, or who have friends/family that will do it/help for a fraction of the cost. But it's worth it because you can rehab these places for like $30,000 (give or take) and you'll have a 2-4 bedroom house or rental property with no mortgage.

https://www.nairaland.com/8079072/cheap-houses-detroit-michigan