₦airaland Forum

If you live abroad and you own land, a house you rent out, or a building going up here, I would like to hear how you manage it.

Who is on the ground for you? A brother, a cousin, a caretaker, an agent? How do they update you, WhatsApp photos or just a phone call? Do you trust what they tell you?

And if it has ever gone wrong, whether it was rent that was never remitted, a building that did not move for months, or a repair they said was done but was not, how did you find out?

I am a software engineer here in Lagos. I am not selling anything, no links, nothing. I just want to understand this problem properly from people who are living it.

As someone living abroad, I don’t really subscribe to developing property in nigeria. I only buy the land then send the documents home to my parents.

If you are someone that isn’t settled in the country you are, it is not advisable for you to start buying lands and develop them in Nigeria when you don’t have the time or option of going home to monitor the projects yourself.
The annual rent you get from 2 3bedroom flats could barely settle your 1month bill in UK. After a year, you will nearly cry while trying to fix what got spoilt in the property by the tenants.

Getting a trustworthy manager of the projects is another big time challenge, no matter how close you are. They see that as an opportunity for making the fortune from you and not delivering a nice job or nothing at all

Thanks, this will really help me.

Have you ever considered a property management company?
Just curious to know, of course managing properties is not easy even for owners who are here in Nigeria.

Amotolongbo:
As someone living abroad, I don’t really subscribe to developing property in nigeria. I only buy the land then send the documents home to my parents.

If you are someone that isn’t settled in the country you are, it is not advisable for you to start buying lands and develop them in Nigeria when you don’t have the time or option of going home to monitor the projects yourself.
The annual rent you get from 2 3bedroom flats could barely settle your 1month bill in UK. After a year, you will nearly cry while trying to fix what got spoilt in the property by the tenants.

Getting a trustworthy manager of the projects is another big time challenge, no matter how close you are. They see that as an opportunity for making the fortune from you and not delivering a nice job or nothing at all

tanigororo:
Have you ever considered a property management company?
Just curious to know, of course managing properties is not easy even for owners who are here in Nigeria.

I haven’t considered and I will never consider.
Thanks

To be realistic, everyone has a dream. For some it is to own a property in certain areas of Nigeria.
Working hard for so long it is only normal for some to make their dream true. I bought a land in lekki I have not developed and I am currently looking at doing some thing on it.

I bought a big land trying to make my dream of plantation true.
Just put down a thousand heads of plantain, about 3.5 acres of cassava, the acres of corn was a bust.

Imagine the cost of ploughing, planting, spraying, seedlings , labor etc even losing money on harvesting the corn because I can only get what they said they harvested.

To be honest most of us outside the country lose more money than anyone imagines.

Our people are purely evil when it comes to running a business for someone even themselves.

My goal is to put 2000 palm seedlings in the ground asap, but the cost to get to this point is drying me up really fast.

owning a house in Nigeria is one of the most expensive investment one can make. like someone said your yearly income is your monthly rent in the West.

They say a fool is born everyday and there are a lot of Nigerian fools in the diaspora that confront reality with faith.



Basically most of us are just losing money time after time.

I magine I did a long term deposit in 2012 at $10k in naira which was about N1.2m @ 14% .
between me not being in Nigeria for years and 1st bank putting account in dormancy for years not paying interest, and almighty APC destroying naira $10K then is now worth about $2k now at whatever rate they are doing.

If I had kept that money in the US it would have worth a lot more by now, I could never had imagine the level of inflation in cost/ depreciation in value and the devaluation Nigeria was going to face once APC came in compared to the previous decade from 1998 when I opened my first deposit account with UTB agidingbi while in university.


We do suffer a lot loses