UPDC Rolls Out Housing Schemes For Workers, Middle Income Earners

A real estate firm, UPDC Plc has rolled out new housing schemes into the Nigerian home market to meet the housing needs of workers and middle income earners.

The firm’s chief executive officer(CEO), Odunayo Ojo, who made this known at a media interactive session in Lagos, reiterated their commitment to the development of affordable, contemporary homes to meet the housing needs of Nigerians.

He said, the firm, previously a subsidiary of UAC, had been repositioned and undergone a transition period, having been acquired by Custodian Investment Plc Group, a majority shareholder in 2020.

After the repositioning exercise, he said, the financial performance of the company increased by 614 per cent from N825, 404 in 2021 to N5,896,724 in 2022, adding that, It also recorded a N200.53m profit, a 111 per cent appreciation from the N1.87bn loss in the corresponding period in 2021.

The UPDC boss said, the firm, founded in 1997, is a seasoned development and investment company in the country with an established record in developing, selling and managing real estate assets across the country.

Harping on the two new projects of the firm, he said, the Pinnock Prime Estate which is a 1.47 hectare site and service scheme is located in Lekki Peninsula II, saying it is designed to meet the housing needs of workers and middle income earners.

To him, ‘’it is envisioned to become a sought-after development and estate of choice within the area creating a new benchmark for suburban living. The Hampshire is the creation of approximately five hectare mixed use development into Serviced Plots (Site and Service Infrastructure) with Residential, Commercial and Public Use Zones. The estate will comprise three zones in Sangotedo area of Lagos.”

Ojo stressed that, “we have started to do projects and we would be developing more projects. Last year, we only had one project that contributed to the (appreciation in indices). We had some assets too. But to sustain it, we need a consistent flow of projects.

“Most real estate businesses don’t have a flat cash flow projection. There are some years where you sow, there are some years where you reap. Sometimes it takes two years to buy the land, design it, and get planning approval. So the gestation period for real estate development takes a long time but what we want to do is that we want to have a healthy pipeline of projects which we are currently working on.

“It requires a lot of capital, it requires a lot of patience. It is not a slam dunk as they say. It is not one year to do it and then forget about it. Last year was a good year for us, we expect this year to possibly be good, but we do not expect the spike like we saw between 2021 and 2022.’’