FG Advised to Recognise Real Estate as GDP Growth Enabler

Dike Onwuamaeze

The Chief Consultant of B. Adedipe Associates Limited (BAA), Dr. Biodun Adedipe, has advised the federal government to pay attention to the growth of the real estate sector because of the opportunities it would offer for the growth of Nigerian economy.

Adedipe, gave the advice recently, when he featured as lead speaker at the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce’s (NBCC) Real Estate Outlook 2024 with the theme “Looking Ahead: Gauging Opportunities.”

He said: “The message we have to ensure that we pass to our government is to recognise the real estate sector even though it is small in terms of contribution to the GDP.”

Adedipe pointed out that the drop in the real estate’s contributions to the economy over the past years is an indicator that there are opportunities to be explored in that sector.

“When a sector’s share of the GDP is going down, it is interpreted in Economics as ‘pointers to opportunities within that space.’

“That means that it has space to grow and enhance its contribution to the economy,” he said.

According to him, “there are two critical sectors to observe anytime you want to interpret what the future holds for an economy. They are the real estate and the stock market.

“Whatever that is happening there will be taken as a six month indicator of what will happen to the economy.”

Adedipe, disclosed that a World Bank study showed a relationship between the real estate and the economy, adding that the impact of the collapse of the stock market on the economy was half the impact of the real estate.

This, according to him, was the reason China refinanced the real estate loans in its financial system to stablise that sector and keep its economy growing.

In his welcome address, the President of NBCC, Mr. Ray Atelly, said the event was to share knowledge that would galvanise investments in the real estate segment of the Nigeria’s economy.

Atelly, noted that the current high inflation in the country, which was also rocking the building material market, has rendered the concept of “affordable housing” irrelevant for now.

He asked: “How do you define affordable housing today because there is no special ‘cement for the poor.’” He, however, urged the banking sector to create consumer loans that could fill the gap.

The Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Housing, Ms. Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, in her special guest address, said the state government was providing a regulatory environment that would create opportunities in the real estate and engender collaboration between the private and public sectors in order to provide affordable housing to Lagosians.

She advised developers in the state to register with the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority.