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Real Estate Unite 2014 Conference Holds: Fashola Delivers Opening Address As Over 2000 Attendees Unite For Real Estate


October 2nd, 2014; Lagos, Nigeria—The third annual Real Estate Unite summit held from October 2nd – 3rd 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos where participants attended the largest gathering of real estate professionals and stakeholders to explore answers to this year’s theme “Igniting the F.I.R.E: Where Lies The Key?” F.I.R.E is an acronym for the four factors of Finance, Infrastructure, Red-Tapism and Education; identified as having the power to grow the real estate industry better. The event welcomed over 2000 participants who over the span of two days took part in a high-level conference, an awards dinner, an exhibition and strategic roundtables.

The summit was officially opened by His Excellency, Governor Babatunde Fashola, Governor of Lagos State who spoke on the science of building a mega city in Africa’s largest economy. Speaking on Education as part of the F.I.R.E. the Governor described the issue as a serious matter of self and public education that must be undertaken before everyone fully comprehends issues of mortgage and affordable housing—access to which is a fundamental human right of citizens to their government. The Governor also stressed the need to understand the difference between low cost housing and affordable housing as the former is nearly impossible when the inputs to construction like financing, materials and skills are not low cost.


The Governor particularly frowned at the situation whereby residents were asked to pay a two-year rent in advance in an economy where they receive their salaries in arrears. “We see it as wrong when a society pretends that all is well when people are asked to put forward two years rent in advance when they are getting monthly wages in arrears something is wrong. And if we are also comfortable with it there is something wrong with us”, he said.

He further talked about what his administration had been doing to address the issue of affordable housing through the Lagos H.O.M.S scheme. He said that currently construction is on 25 sites across the State “with as little as 1,000 square metres in some places and as much as 10 hectares and 15 hectares in some places like Ibeshe in Ikorodu and Ajara in Badagry” adding that about 222 construction companies are currently involved in the work.

On the benefits accruable from the massive construction, Fashola said it has woken up the real economy adding that the Lagos HOMS initiative is currently keeping the businesses of those firms going with over 1,000 professionals – architects, quantity surveyors and builders – involved and about 3,000 plus other service providers like food vendors, artisans, welders, plant sellers, all down the chain that have benefited from the initiative.

Prior to his speech, the Governor had been introduced by Ruth Obih, CEO of 3Invest; organizers of the Real Estate Summit. In her introduction, she said, “ We believe that that Africa’s largest economy has a strong role to play in making real estate a major contributor to national GDPs across the continent; thus the event brings together global experts to uncover untapped opportunities within the industry.”

She also took the opportunity to introduce the new real estate rewards card called 3INVESTOR, which offers a range of benefits to its members. According to her, “This platform was created as a solution to address consumers challenges such as high cost of building and household materials, high agency fees, high interest lending rate and lack of construction finance”. The card was made available to all attendees as part of their participants’ package.

Keynoting the F.I.R.E panels respectively were Real Estate leaders such as Kunle Osilaja, Head Real Estate Ecobank; Olumide Olusanya, Professor of Real Estate at Unilag and Hakeem Ogunniran, Managing Director, UPDC.

The day then wrapped up with the annual Awards gala where the best of the industry was celebrated in twelve categories of winners selected from a competitive pool put forward and voted on by the public. The winners of the Real Estate Unite 2014 Awards were announced as follows:


On the third day, Friday October 3rd, the conference space was transformed into an elaborate showcase opportunity for more than 50 exhibiting businesses who made available to the public, products and services to benefit their real estate and property development needs. The exhibitions saw over 1000 members of the visiting public who took the opportunity to interact with the brands that they would otherwise have been unable to reach.

Happening alongside the exhibition were three highly strategic roundtables with a combined goal to enlighten participants of new opportunities in real estate. The first was the Housing Finance Roundtable, chaired by Chii Akporji, Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy/ Ministry of Housing. The keynote on this roundtable was delivered by Sonnie Ayere, Chairman of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) who explained the role his institution plays for those looking to tap into long term financing for real estate. He said, “The biggest problem that mortgage banks have in Nigeria is that they do not have access to long term money. We [NMRC] are here to create a warehouse finance structure for mortgage banks and provide the refinancing you need. ”

Following this, Erejuwa Gbadebo, former CEO of Broll Nigeria gave the opening address on the Commercial Real Estate roundtable that invited and encouraged new investments from participants towards Healthcare Real Estate. The roundtable on healthcare real estate was devised when the summit found itself faced with the fallout of international delegates following the outbreak of Ebola.
In delivering her presentation Gbadebo said, “In Nigeria, we have 0.53 beds per 1000 patients. Even Gabon and Ethiopia have beaten us on this and we are Africa’s largest economy. It has been projected that the healthcare delivery sector would be one of the top-five most promising investment areas in Africa, expanding at the same rate as the telecommunications & infrastructure sector”. Supporting her call to action were Funke Okubadejo of ACTIS who served as the roundtable chair as well as healthcare real estate practitioners; Leslie Orr, Dr Alero Roberts; and Dr Leke Oshinniyi

The final roundtable for the day saw the launch of the first ever African Women in Real Estate Network. According to Ruth Obih, CEO of 3Invest, “A.W.I.R.E was launched to increase participation and opportunities for women in the sector. If we in the real estate are committed to our own growth, we must make definitive strides for women’s participation in our sector. “

To buttress this, real estate trailblazer, Udo Maryanne Okonjo, CEO of Fine & Country, West Africa, delivered the keynote speech. In her speech, she charted for attendees, her journey from a career in law to being one of the most respected practitioners in the industry. She connected the role that real estate plays with the ability of women to achieve economic empowerment and stability by comparing portfolios of the wealthiest women in Asia. She said, “Real Estate is an integral part of wealth creation for nations. Something is about to happen in Nigeria and we want to be part of it, we the women in real estate.”

Also speaking at the launch of A.W.I.R.E were Onouju Irukwu, MD Chapel Hill Denham; Nonso Ume Ezeoke, CEO, Assist-to-Sell; Omolara Akinbola, General Manager and Chima Asogwo, Business Development Executive at CMB Building Maintenance & Investment Co Ltd; Uzo Oshiogwe of Afriland Properties, Bola Adesola, MD/CEO of Standard Chartered Bank and Tosin Ajose of Detail Solicitors.

In her impassioned plea to women to take the first step in owning or investing in property, Ms Ume Ezeoke said, “For every funding you get as income, there must be a portion that needs to go to real estate.” The A.W.I.R.E network plans to serve tens of thousands of members across the African continent and will be a staple event at upcoming annual events.

The summit has been billed a resounding success by participants, sponsors and partners with many already making inquiries of the organisers towards the next installment.

Real Estate Unite is the largest gathering of real estate professionals who convene annually to explore untapped opportunities within the sector towards shared prosperity for all. The 2014 summit was the third installment of the event and featured three tiers of a conference, an exhibition and a third being the awards. The event is organized by 3Invest, a service real estate consulting and investment firm servicing clients globally.




3INVEST LTD
+234 809 999 1603
media@3investmedia.com; reu@3investmedia.com
Official Website for the Event: Real Estate Unite
Social Media Engagement: #REUNITE2014

About 3INVEST LTD
3INVEST LTD is a service real estate consulting and investment firm serving real estate owners, investors, and occupiers both domestically and internationally. While leveraging on its advocacy platform 3INVEST INTELLIGENCE which serves as a valuable, one-stop source for real estate stakeholders to obtain comprehensive industry-focused data, statistics, market reports and other resources; as well as to connect with other professionals in educational networking events. Its resources include 3Investonline, Real Estate On Air, Real Estate Unite and Property Buyers Forum.

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