The Chief Executive Officer of Hampton-Row Real Estates and former Managing Director of QUO Courier & Logistics, Kazeem Bello-Osagie has suggested ways the Federal Government can cushion the adverse effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on the economy.
In a recent interview where he admitted that the industry he operates, the real estate sector, is one of the casualties of the pandemic, he said the government should give some palliatives to real estates players to weather the storm to survive in the post COVID-19 era.
“To cushion the adverse effect of the pandemic, government should introduce a wide range of palliatives to real estate players from interest free loans, grants, business stimulus and extended moratoriums on existing loans, to fill up the major loopholes this pandemic has created in the industry, in addition to the devaluation of the Naira,which will have a negative effect on property developers, that did not envisage such devaluation and failed to factor this into their build cost,” he said.
Explaining further, he added, “The regulatory departments should also actively expedite title documentation and provisional build permits, to ensure that construction can actively return to sites and the ripple effect of job creation can happen. This is one of the most important sectors in the country, as a vast majority of Nigerians are self employed and casual workers on construction sites, from the laborer, masons, electricians, plumbers, engineer, supervisor, so on and so fall.”
He admitted that it has not been business as usual as everything has been practically on lockdown, adding that the drop in oil prices globally has made matters worse.
“For us at Hampton row, it has directly affected us , as we have had to suspend construction in line with the social distancing and lockdown order. It has also slowed down sales, as the mindset of potential subscribers is that cash is king now, especially as we are dealing with a virus, that the world still does not understand, making it difficult for a potential subscriber to plan and forecast . These are really difficult and scary times , but there will still be a lot of positives in post Covid19 era in the real estate sector , once the world can wriggle her way out of this crisis,” he said.
Bello-Osagie, 44, established Hampton-Row Real Estates in 2014, but had actively been involved in the real estate sector for over 15 years in the informal sector, while he still ran QUO Courier & Logistics before realizing there was a major gap in the housing industry in Nigeria, in areas of finishing and transferring real value to the end users.
According to him, their business model is building mini estates in clusters. Their signature project in Lekki is the “The Domicile By Hampton Row 1 & 2”.
“At Hampton-Row Real Estates, we are bent on changing the misconception in the Nigerian real estate and property development sector, that for you to have what is classified as luxury in a property, the subscriber must be made to pay a premium in terms of pricing.
“It’s the little things like Time value that is passionately applied in the development of a property and negligible cost, that adds to the detailing and grandeur of a property. Our target market is the emerging middle class, middle class and the upper middle class. In future we intend to go into low cost housing, which is the future of real estate in Nigeria,” he added.
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