AN APPRAISAL OF INVESTOR CONFIDENCE IN THE NIGERIAN REAL ESTATE SECTOR
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Â Â BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The Nigerian Real Estate Sector has recorded steady and consistent growth over the last four years becoming one of the greatest contributors to the Nation’s rebased GDP from the non-oil sector – having contributed 8.03% and 11% in 2013 and 2014 respectively (Ikekpeazu, 2004). The market which is currently valued at approximately N6.5 Trillion is estimated to grow at an average of 10% over the next few years. The major growth drivers in the sector have been credited to: an increased inflow of foreign investment (especially from South Africa, MEA and the United States); increased institutional investment from local companies including PFAs and Mutual Funds; the growing population of High Net worth Individuals; and the targeted intervention of the Federal Government in the housing finance sector. This however indicates that a lot of stakeholders and investor are confident about the structure of the Nigeria real estate sector even with the dwindling economy of the nation (Olotuah, 2000).
Real estate investing involves the purchase, ownership, management, rental and/or sale of real estate for profit. Improvement of realty property as part of a real estate investment strategy is generally considered to be a sub-specialty of real estate investing called real estate development. Real estate is an asset form with limited liquidity relative to other investments, it is also capital intensive (although capital may be gained through mortgage leverage) and is highly cash flow dependent (Agbola, 1998). If these factors are not well understood and managed by the investor, real estate becomes a risky investment. The primary cause of investment failure for real estate is that the investor goes into negative cash flow for a period of time that is not sustainable, often forcing them to resell the property at a loss or go into insolvency. A similar practice known as flipping is another reason for failure as the nature of the investment is often associated with short term profit with less effort.
