Land in Nigeria’s main cities is immediately handled and priced like gold. In Lagos, the nation’s industrial nerve centre, as an example, land is alleged to be an equal of an oil properly, which is why the managers of the state are up and out in search of those that flout their land administration legal guidelines, flawed or proper.
In most cities of the nation, together with these thought to be second-tier cities, similar to Enugu, Ibadan, Kano, Owerri, Onitsha, amongst others, land instructions monumental values.
Due largely to robust demand coming from actual property builders, trade operators, diaspora buyers, and varied patrons who wish to hedge their wealth in opposition to inflation, land costs have surged to very vital ranges.
Learn additionally: Dubai real estate enters stabilisation phase as investors shift focus to long-term value, consultant says
In some places notably in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, land costs have tripled during the last 12 months, posting near 300 p.c worth appreciation.
Chudi Ubosi, principal companion at Ubosi Eleh & Co, a agency of property surveyors and valuers, confirmed to BusinessDay that land costs have moved past comprehension, citing a property on Cooper Street in Ikoyi which, in response to him, was going for N800,000 per sq. metre (sqm) in January 2024, however immediately is priced at N3.5 million per sqm.
“These value will increase are a operate of inflation and devaluation of the Naira. As a matter of conference, property values transfer with inflation although it’s mentioned that actual property is a hedge in opposition to inflation. The value will increase are the identical throughout Lagos,” he said.
Within the mainland Lagos, Ikeja GRA, as an example, costs have additionally moved, and in response to Ubosi, land within the GRA now sells for N1.5 million/sqm, up from N600,000/sqm in January 2024.
Nonetheless, as outrageous as these costs are, they aren’t the true value of land in Nigerian cities immediately. The true prices, reasonably, are the household dislocation, psychological trauma, and funding losses that many residents are enduring on account of constructing demolitions by federal and state governments throughout cities.
The rash of constructing demolitions that has just lately affected no less than 2,500 homes in main cities throughout the nation is fuelling lamentations and apprehension amongst residents and buyers who now not sleep with their two eyes closed as a result of the bulldozers can come any time, day or night time.
Constructing demolition, sadly, has turn into a development and routine not solely in Lagos and Abuja, but in addition in Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Oyo, and Kano, leaving in its path property devaluation, job losses, homelessness, and declining buyers’ confidence in the true property market.
By the final checks, which have been even earlier than the demolition of the Makoko neighborhood and the upscale Lekki Palm Metropolis Property, Ajah, it was estimated that 2,500 homes in main cities throughout the nation have been affected, with the fee put at over N2 trillion.
In Lagos, the place the destruction has been most pronounced, demolition has affected communities alongside the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Street, Ikorodu, Ikota, Ebute-Metta, Bariga, Ibeju-Lekki, the Lagos Commerce Honest Complicated, Festac City, Oworonshoki and Mile 12.
The Mile 12 incident was fairly devastating because it was reported that 10 individuals died of shock, whereas virtually 300 homes, together with neighborhood faculties, hospitals, church buildings, and mosques, have been pulled down.
In each Lagos and Abuja, the demolition just isn’t solely pervasive, additionally it is senseless and is completed as if the federal government has a rating to settle with the residents.
In some places the place demolitions happen, land is bought for some huge cash, which is why some social commentators have reservations about what the federal government’s intentions are past the often-touted city renewal. Land is on the core of the senseless drive.
A full plot of land in lots of the affected areas in Lagos now sells for round N200 million, whereas half-plots fetch over N80 million. The cumulative worth of misplaced property in Lagos alone is estimated at over N2 trillion.
Learn additionally: Cautious optimism trails 2026 projections for real estate sector
Although Akinwunmi Balogun, a college don, causes that slums are all the time a menace to planning and modernity, Adebanjo Emmanuel, a retired director from the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN), counters, saying that city renewals needs to be well-purposed, programmed and deliberate over time with attainable financing help for individuals to be affected.
“Immediately, the federal government realises that some infringements of their “unknown” grasp plans have been dedicated. And pronto, the midnight roaring of the bulldozers. Methinks two wrongs don’t make a proper,” he famous.
