UPDC to Create Quality Homes in Middle Income Market

Bennett Oghifo

UPDC Plc., the foremost real estate development and management company in the country, has a lot of premium homes in its portfolio. For the over two decades of its existence, it had built all shades of luxury homes in the up-market.

But now, the seasoned builder has seen an exciting niche in the middle income market where it has decided to lead a formidable charge by rendering some high-quality but competitively priced housing products.

The Chief Executive Officer of UPDC Plc., Mr. Odunayo Ojo did not mince words about this delft move the company is making in his presentation of their scorecard and 2023 outlook to journalists recently.

The CEO said for about 25 years, UPDC has been operating as a standalone company and continues to be the foremost real estate development company, institutional investor, and has done a lot of developments across the country. 

“We have about five different business lines, the first one being property development. So we build houses, we create real estate projects, we build communities and if you see some of the landmark buildings around Lagos and other parts of the country, you will see our footprints. For instance, KPMG is renting one of the properties from UPDC and the next building to it also on Bishop Aboyade Cole Street, Victoria Island, is also one of our properties among other developments. Festival Mall just across from this (Festival) hotel was also developed by UPDC and so on. 

“We have a lot of landmark projects across the country. We have built in Abuja, Port Harcourt, in Calabar, in Asaba, in Ibadan; so we are a true national heritage company and that continues to be our legacy.”

He said the company is also involved in development management and Asset Management. “These are advisory services that we render to our clients where if you are an investor and you want a strong project manager or a strong partner, UPDC can do that for you.

“We are in the facility management business. We have a standalone company known as UPDC  Facilities Management Limited. It’s a separate company that does facility management for all our estates and we are into hospitality. This hotel, the festival hotel, is one of our companies.

“We all knew it as Durba hotel many years ago, then it became Golden Tulip, now, it has been rebranded to Festival Hotel. These are the things that we do as a business.

“Also, as part of our track record we’ve built thousands of houses, we’ve built retail, we’ve built offices, we have over 35 different estates that our facility management company manages. The hotel is the second largest in Lagos after Eko Hotel; it’s a huge facility. We have a lot of rooms for conferences, this is something that we are very proud of and we are still strong in terms of our asset base as a business.”

Ojo said there is a huge prospect in the middle income market and that UPDC is well positioned to tap into it. “Everybody needs a home, but not everybody can afford a home so we decided to tackle the middle income housing segment first. Where if you have a job, you work in a good organisation, you earn a salary, you should ideally be able to own your home. That’s what happens in any part of the world. Why is it different in Nigeria? We don’t have mortgages, we don’t have the credit system, but as developers, it’s one of our responsibilities to address the shortage of housing.

“So we started moving away from the luxury product and started to move toward the middle income product on our way to get into the affordable housing sector. Last year, we walked on two major projects and we are going to be doing more during the course of this year.

“One of them is our Pinnock prime project. We started it and we had a groundbreaking ceremony around May last year and it’s a community. It’s a site and service scheme where people can buy land and you can build either your own home or build for commercial purposes; to sell or to lease.”

He said, “About 18 plots of different sizes, some of them were low density and high density – low density, people can build semi-detached houses and high density, people can build apartments – and people, industry were watching to see what UPDC was going to do without the project. So we launched it. The project is about 95% complete, and at the appropriate time, maybe some of us will have the opportunity to visit and also we can do a press tour to just look at some of our key landmark projects.

“It’s a very successful project, about 70 percent of the project has already been committed to different investors and by the second quarter of this year, we intend to finalise it and hand it over to some of the investors.

“That’s some of the key highlights of the project that we did last year. It’s in Agungi in the Lekki area, very close to the Circle Mall, and it’s a project that we are very proud of. We’ve put a lot of innovation into this project. For instance all the street lights are solar, so you don’t have to worry about power supply; it’s all solar which is in line with our sustainability initiatives. 

“We also recycle water, so we wouldn’t have to always rely on treated water, we recycle water for landscape and so many other things. It’s a real forward thinking project and it’s a taste of what is to come from UPDC. UPDC sees itself as a responsible developer, responsible corporate citizen and we are very proud of what we’ve been able to do with this project.”

He said the second project is a five-hectare site in Sangotedo, just behind Novare Mall on the way to Epe. “It’s also a community where we are building middle-income housing but we are providing the site and service. So you can buy the land, we have prototype designs, and development guidelines that you have to abide by.

“It’s a community where people are already living, so it’s not like you are buying somewhere far away where nobody is living. It’s a community where a lot of middle income people are already living and we are trying to make housing accessible to a lot more people using some of this project. We have designed this scheme such that there are different types of houses that you can build. You can build apartments, semi-detached terraces or you can build single family dwelling homes. So this is our answer to some of the housing challenges that we face in this country and that’s something that is very dear to our hearts.”

He said these projects will retain the standards of UPDC, saying “One of the things that we also care about is the quality of life. You don’t necessarily need to live in Ikoyi or Victoria Island or in Ikeja GRA to live a good life. Wherever we build, we always ensure that we provide adequate facilities and amenities – recreational facilities, we have a huge playground called the green area. It is up to 3000 square meters of green area where kids can play football, basketball; you have a really high quality of life and so many people have come to us and said, why are you giving so much area to green? You are wasting land, cut it and sell it but we said no because the quality of life is as a result of some of these amenities that we provide; proper roads, proper infrastructure, these things cost money but on the long run they hold value and this is one of the key things that we are currently doing and the project has been launched in the market.”

The company’s development management services, he said, is “an advisory service where we identified a need in the market. A lot of developers claim to be developers, but they are not experienced developers. That’s why we have incidents of collapsed buildings all over the place, even places that you would never think that buildings would collapse. Banana Island, Gerard Road, unheard of.

“It shows you that the industry is in dire need of highly skilled manpower and as a result of that, UPDC has decided that we will provide this service to third parties. If you are an investor, you have land, you have your funds and you need a developer to assist you in developing high quality homes and properties, UPDC can render this service. We’ve done it for a number of investors now and they are gradually seeing this as a service that is complementary to their objectives.

He discussed asset management as “something that we have started to provide to our customers, especially corporate organisations where there is a portfolio. Some of us might be aware of our Real Estate Investment Trust. UPDC owns a relative Investment Trust. We sponsored it around 2013 and it’s a portfolio of properties where you can buy units like you’re buying shares. 

“You know we have properties in different parts of Nigeria and from the rent of those properties, you earn some income. We render assets and property management services to projects like that. For big organisations with a very big portfolio of properties, UPDC can help you manage your portfolio. We do this as an industry service, it is not really for profit per se.

“But we believe that if you are building quality buildings, if we are having quality projects it helps all of us. So UPDC does this as one of our key contributions to the economy.”