Nigerian Proptech Startup, Buyletlive Engages Leaders in Real Estate Ecosystem at a Digi-volution Forum
Mary Nnah
The much-anticipated maiden edition of BuyLetLive’s Stakeholder Engagement Forum themed, “Real Estate Digi-volution”, which took place at the prestigious Grand Ballroom of Eko Hotel & Suites recently had one major goal in mind: to limit the opaqueness in the real estate market. A goal that the brand believes buyers, agents and landlords have benefited from in the past year through their thoughtfully-created ecosystem enabling improved interactions between stakeholders.
As a two-sided marketplace, BuyLetLive aggregates inventory on one side from verified agents and developers and on the other side showcases this inventory to home seekers providing them with a wider and safer search experience.
The Stakeholder Engagement Forum was aimed at showcasing BuLetLive’s product and service guarantee to stakeholders, discussing the potential opportunities it holds and obtaining feedback to better serve the ecosystem.
Addressing pressmen at the event, the CEO/Co-founder BuyLetLive, Mr. Ola Daramola, said “Our mission is simple. We want to be the one-stop platform that agents, developers and home seekers turn to as their property portal of choice, and to deliver this, BuyLetLive is building an ecosystem that employees want to work in, that venture capitalists can trust with their investments and industry practitioners are eager to partner with.”
The Stakeholder Engagement Forum featured Keynote addresses, panel sessions, and open discussions on topics such as Funding opportunities for real estate development, The role of technology in real estate (proptech) and galvanising investments for the Nigerian diaspora in the Nigerian property market. These prompted very rich conversations and contributions by guest speakers and invited guests.
With the increasing number of Nigerians in the diaspora, Keynote speaker, Abike Dabiri-Erewa OON, CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, spoke on the products her commission is offering prospective property investors in order to galvanise investment in the real estate sector for Nigerians in the diaspora.
“When we talk of issues in the Diaspora, We are talking of 17 million Nigerians abroad and 20 Billion dollars in terms of remittances to Nigeria, that is more than any foreign direct investment put together, It’s about 6% of our GDP,” she said.
Speaking further, she added, “One way we can have Nigerians in the diaspora invest properly in the Nigerian real estate sector, is through organisations like BuyLetLive playing a key role by connecting buyers directly to sellers without a third party and without being duped.”
CEO, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Wole Adeniyi in his address highlighted the Financial Opportunities for Real Estate and their economic contribution. He was quick to inform the invited stakeholders of the opportunities available for the industry through the lens of the banking sector. According to him, “The Real Estate Industry has 3.5 Trillion Naira available for utilisation of home loans. BuyLetLive provides the biggest opportunity for users to have access to this with Stanbic IBTC. For the expansion of the real estate industry, we need credible and trustworthy real estate players and what BuyLetLive is doing is creating an opportunity and a platform for that connection to happen.”
With the growth of Proptech, where BuyLetLive is leading this paradigm shift in Nigeria, guest speakers at the event shared their thoughts on the adoption of technology in the Nigerian real estate market. These discussions addressed the intricacies of adopting protech, its future in Nigeria and also the current and potential challenges.
According to Odunayo Ojo, CEO, UPDC Plc, “One of the key issues in the real estate industry is lack of data and the only way we can access that data is if we are all feeding into the database and that is what platforms such as BuyLetLive will force us to do.”
This sentiment was shared by Gbenga Olaniyan (CEO/Senior Partner, Estate Links Limited), “Ensure that you do not joke with data. Not just data, you need to have access to actually concluded transaction data that is up to date. This is because asking prices for properties in this part of the world is artificially high and are not to be used for decision-making
According to Olawale Ayilara (CEO/Group Head, Oxygen Holdings/LandWey Investments Limited), this is an issue that can be solved through reasonable investments, “In the future generally, technology is very integral to how the property market and everything will operate. As businesses and leaders in the industry, we need to invest more in research and development. We all need to see how we can invest in technology to enhance how we do business”
From one speaker to another, the wealth of knowledge shared can be described as profound, filling the room with continuous applause and appreciation for BuyLetLive’s initiative in hosting an insightful forum.
