One of the strategies recently adopted by investors is the renting of apartments earlier put up for sale for easier up-takes.
The property market in the past years has been down with no serious activities as Nigerians become cash strapped. The advent of COVID-19 has also worsened the impact on real estate buyers.The effect is poor purchasing power of many Nigerians. He mentioned Surulere, Ajao Estate, Amuwo Odofin, Anthony Village, Mende and Ikeja as well as Agbara, Arepo and Mowe in Ogun State as some of the notable places witnessing an upsurge of such conversions.
“Generally, where there are a lot of acute shortages, the demand for accommodation is still high, people find it difficult to buy property. He stressed, that in a case where a developer borrowed money for a project from fund providers, may be at an interest rate of 28 per cent and has not sold, the feasibility appraisal would be giving a negative indication.“So, if you rent, the tendency of even servicing the loan may be there. Although, the intention may not have been to develop and rent because the stream of income that is coming is small compared with the output, instead of the building lying fallow.