Eniola: MAIHOMM Promotes Fractional Housing, Easier Access to Property Ownership

Bennett Oghifo

A real estate company, Management Property Limited (MAIHOMM), is promoting an innovative homeownership and investment model that requires a group of people to buy a single property from which they will reap regular returns through rental income.

The Founder of Management Property Limited (MAIHOMM), Mr. Eni Eniola, who explained who fractional housing work, at a media parley in Lagos, recently, said, “you can get on a property ladder by starting on a fractional basis.”

According to him, “MAIHOMM as an innovative fractional real estate company. When I say ‘innovative’ it’s because it’s different from the regular real estate that we all know. We deal with fractional housing in the sense that we don’t sell full properties. Right, that’s not what we do, we break things down and I’ll explain to you what I mean by that. This is a concept that comes from my background in investment banking. So this idea came from, like you will see, the selling of stocks. At one point nobody could buy Microsoft shares or Apple shares because it’s like $1,000 per share and then a couple of years ago, just right after COVID this idea of breaking it into pieces came into fruition, which people now started. Now you can buy Apple shares for maybe $5 just to be a part of it. That’s what gave birth to the word fractional when it comes to investments. 

“So, we now added that into the real estate sector. And we did that in the sense that we all know that real estate seems to be what is the safest mode of investments anybody can do right now, whether it’s for our personal houses or for rental income.”

Eniola said these property being promoted are in the UK, and he explained how it works. “So for example, let’s say we get a property in the UK for 100,000 pounds, right? What we now do is we bring 20 people together to pay like 5,000 pounds each. So, they all co-own the property. It’s just like a father who has five kids- just like mutual funds –he has one property, he is not going to split the property but puts it under a trust and everybody says okay, this is our inheritance from our dad. You give it to somebody to manage, they rent it out for you, every year or every month, everybody comes together. This is what they have made you to know and at that point, they split the rental income to everybody. 

“That is basically what we do, but the difference is we bring people together to come and own it. Once you own it, we’ll manage those property for you as well. So at the end of every month, whatever that property makes, I mean, it’s not like here where our rental is on a yearly basis, over there is monthly. So at the end of every month, whatever it makes, depending on your ownership stake in that property, you get your return, honestly, simple and short. 

“That is what fractional real estate that MAIHOMM does is all about. So what we’re trying to do now is to tell people the benefits of doing that. 

“I know we have a culture of everybody just wanting to own your house. When you talk to people, they will ask why would I share with somebody? But what we’re trying to say is that you can get on a property ladder, not by fully owning a place you can get on a property ladder by starting on a fractional basis. It’s also an investment because we know that that is the safest investment.” 

Eniola said fractional housing has a lot of benefits, including earning of foreign exchange “because it’s not properties based in the country (Nigeria). Making FX helps you with inflation that is happening every day, not even every month or every year in Nigeria, but every day. There’s also some benefits that come for people that want to travel. The fact that you have a property you can show no matter how small the fact that you can show that you already have an investment abroad, helps you with all these travel things for those that understand the intricacies of travelling and obtaining visas and things like that. 

“Also it gives you the benefit of not having to have a lot of money to buy into it, and it comes with a full documentation, your documentation shows you have a property and these are documentation that can be verified from the government’s websites out there with your name and everything on it, it shows that you own a property.”

Owning fractional property, he said, reduces the pressure on parents who still send money to their children abroad.

“So, these are the kinds of things that MAIHOMM has thought about and say let’s bring it into Nigeria for people to be able to say okay. This is an innovative idea. Let’s put it out and get people to understand more about it. Like I said, it’s new. Across the world, it’s also kind of new, but then some people are already doing something similar here and there, in Nigeria. I think we’re the only ones doing it when it comes to foreign properties.” 

Eniola said they also have a buyback arrangement, explaining that “If you want to pull out, we’ll ask if anybody wants to buy additional slots. The purpose of this thing is not for you to have just one. As you’re getting money, you can buy more slots till you own the entire property. And once you own the entire property, you can say MAIHOMM this property is now mine you don’t have to manage it for me anymore. I have a child that will manage it or I want to live in it.”

He said MAIHOMM has two entities that are registered in the UK – Maihomm Management Limited and Maihomm Trustees.