The International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) Nigeria chapter, have been advised to improve their capacity in ‘negotiating and dialogue’ for Foreign Direct Investments into the nation’s property sector.
The Principal, World Citizen Consulting, Mr. Bill Endsley who stated this in during a chat with newsmen in Lagos observed that there is big opportunity for property market in Nigeria but it’s not receiving the type of funds from other countries because of transparency issues about how the market works and so foreign investors are not willing to put money in the industry.
He explained that there was the need to train operators on international norms for real estate investment and existing international standard to attract investment into property market.
“Negotiation and dialogue skills particularly outside the country are extremely important and professionals must be able to do detailed financial analysis for cash flows. Operators and government need to increase the transparency in the industry so that investors would be comfortable coming to invest in Nigeria.”
He lamented that presently, it is difficult to price the risks of investing in the industry because there are no clean windows regarding how the sector works.
Speaking on the sidelines of the second edition of FIABCI International Real Estate Programme organized by the Nigeria’s chapter, he said.
“There is need to clean the windows so that investors in the property sector could see inside and put money for investment. Talking about lack of transaction data; we talk about what are the property laws, the qualifications of the professionals, the banking sector transactions, and the infrastructure that supports property data.”
“With technology now, if the cellphone operators could put in place the infrastructure, it is going to be possible to have property data.
There is prime time opportunity in the industry because economies are moving away from oil into new sectors and so the property market is the foundation of everything. The expectation is to be able to bring the professionals to a level of world-class consultants to attract international investors and move away from the oil and commodity economy into investments in property.”
FIABCI Nigeria President, Mr. Adeniji Adele, said the training was vital to change the mentality of professionals in real estate and share knowledge and ideas as well as bring insightful knowledge into real estate practice especially in adhering to international principles and standards.
“A time would whereby you don’t need to do physical inspection but screen inspection of property sites starting from the roof to the foundation. My fear is that there would negative impact on some of the industries that are not catching up now, they might be out of business very soon. For instance, if am in Europe and wants a property in Lagos, looking at the cost implications would want to board plane and start coming?”
“The business world has become global and most especially, the Real Estate market has been internationalized. This has resulted in the need for professionals to carry out business with investors from diverse cultures and backgrounds making it imperative for professionals to figure out how to deal with these cultural differences in their negotiations”, he said.
For the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers President, Sir Rowland Abonta, the theme is apt and would be able to give professionals the skills in dealing with muiltidimensional negotiations and projects.
He said: “
The real estate sector requires specialists, and capacity building is the only thing that will keep the professional up-to-date to perform his functions better .” The Guardian
