A Port Harcourt-based real estate magnet, known as Mayor of Housing who goes by the name, My-ACE China has disclosed that Abuja and Lagos, the former and current nation’s capital, is his next investment destination.
China disclosed this in Abuja at the weekend when he emerged as the 2023 Real Estate Personality of the Rear at an event held at the Radio House, Abuja.
He also revealed plans to launch a mega estate of over 1500 houses in Port Harcourt that would be world class in terms of facilities and automation, and a smart estate because of the level of automation.
He said: “I have done a lot of projects under the coverage of a lot of collaborations and partnerships where my brand name is not the parent name of any of those projects and I gave them my best as a real estate success strategist.”
China said he started his estate development journey in Abuja in collaboration with another company in joint ventures where the company was the mother company.
“Now, Port Harcourt is the first place we are launching our own project of about 1500 plots. Is going to be the first green sustainable smart city in Nigeria and we are putting a lot into it.
“As soon as that is launched by the first quarter of next year, we intend to also launch in Abuja and Lagos. After Abuja and Lagos next year, we have a programme that we are going to launch in the top 10 cities of Nigeria including Abuja, Jos, Ibadan, Kaduna.
“Those top 10 cities are going to have our presence by the third quarter of next year. So, all you need to do is watch out for the brand – the Mayor of Housing, because we will be coming with some very innovative value-adding products that are not just about houses but making those houses accessible to people to own,” he said.
China said there were many challenges confronting the property sector, hence there is about 28 million housing deficit in Nigeria, identifying poor access to funding as the main issue.
“The challenges we have in real estate are basically that of capital and patience. So, because of how capital-intensive the industry is, you will notice that many of our banks don’t lend to real estate and many of our mortgage banks don’t make the funds for real estate accessible. So, a lot of entrepreneurs in the space are struggling.
“Secondly, the question of patience; a lot of the developers are inpatient and sometimes deliver to the market half-baked proposals that when they run into problems, they are stuck. This breeds a lot of mistrust and distrust in the sector because of the impatience of the developers.
“So, if access is made to funding and then we have credible, trustworthy developers, we wouldn’t be where we are stuck with about 28 million units of housing deficit in Nigeria alone. There is almost a state of emergency in the housing sector,” he said.
China warned that the situation in the housing sub-sector has almost reached national emergency levels, saying the government needed to do something drastic so Nigerians can get houses easily.
