PROPERTY ARTICLES

As the financial meltdown continues to take its toil on the world economy, a Lagos-based mortgage practitioner has put forward ways to alleviate the effect.

In the light of the crash of the stock market and the fall in value of the naira in the foreign exchange market, Managing Director of Centage Mortgage Finance Limited, Mr. Gabriel Johnson Ndukwe, has urged Nigerians to look in the direction of the real estate sector as a refuge against the prevailing economic downturn.

He argued that with the instability in the financial market, the real estate sector is one of the few viable long-term investment outlets open to Nigerians.

"I call on Nigerians to invest into the mortgage sector, especially in real estate as this is the most tangible and dependable investment platform open to Nigerians in the face of the prevailing uncertainties, " he said.

According to him, analysts have recommended other investment platforms as export trading, agriculture and exploitation of solid minerals, but argued that these options are only available to real big-term investors. He added that the advantage in real estate in Nigeria, unlike in the developed world, is that people are in dire need of shelter, and this is why it is one of the seven-point agenda of the Federal Government and an important ingredient in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Ndukwe disclosed that mortgage also has a greater security and a greater long-term value appreciation, adding that housing remains a basic need, with a large, unsatisfied demand. He added that every index confirms that mortgage rates or even prices have never depreciated in Nigeria as a spiral effect of the downturns in other sectors.

The mortgage practitioner stressed that the challenge for the public is to know the market segment that is moving the market now. According to him, with the prevailing financial crunch, it will be difficult to sell upper and middle class houses which cost between N15 and N50 million.

"But, now is the time to sell the lower or lowest housing segments, and this is where the market is now due to low purchasing power of the public and the numerical strength in terms of demand, " he said.

On how the downturn has affected his firm, Ndukwe said his own experience is a boom instead of a fall. He disclosed that the firm recently completed an offer for private placement which also attracted some foreign investors running away from the economic downturn in the US.

Immediately after the offer, he said, he brought a new innovation into the mortgage sector by introducing consumer promo which is only popular with the FMCG sector in the sale of the Ocean Garden Estate located along the Lagos-Epe Expressway.

Ndukwe said the firm 's vision is to be a partner with government in the actualisation of the 2010 Millennial Development Goals as it concerns housing for all, even as he called for more government support in the area of favourable policies for the country 's real estate sector which he described as fast-growing.