Lack of
power and contaminated boreholes!
Monday
How long does it
take to build a house? I had an interesting conversation with some developers
today, and by some estimates, you can build a bungalow anywhere between one
week (if you have all the funds available, materials and workmen on site 24/7)
Some have completed their bungalows in years due to lack of available funding
or land disputes. The same goes for any construction really, it all depends on
both unforeseen problems ie land disputes, illness, lack of funding etc and foreseen
issues ie, channeling funds into other projects, and bad workmanship. The
reason for this conversation was that the owner of a property was marketing his
uncompleted building for sale, which he had started building two years ago, but
never completed.
A lot of
developers are selling off their uncompleted buildings due to lack of funding
or being worn out by bureaucracy and delays.
Tuesday
I had introduced
another agent to a client of mine who had a luxury apartment to sell. Over the
last 4 weeks we had arranged meetings both at the property and at the client’s
office, agreed terms of the sale and submitted relevant paperwork. The clients
have been waiting for completion for the last two weeks. The other agent has
not been taking or responding to calls and finally sent a text saying the
purchaser had put his money for the property back into a fixed deposit account
until further notice! One can never
predict how transactions will go, even up till the last moment.
Wednesday
Everything seems
to be working in slow motion today. I
prepare my article and adverts to go out, I ring a few clients to arrange
viewings and send staff out to scout around for more properties. I read in the
newspapers that the property market in Nigeria, may not be as buoyant as the
last year. It was pretty depressed last year anyway and looks set to continue
being depressed for a while longer... we must be realistic.
Thursday
I get into the
office to find that the generator is not working and we are therefore unable to
do the printing of letters to go out to clients. I tell the staff to get the
clients email address and email this to them in the mean time.
I have lunch with
a good client who is refurbishing a block of flats in Ikoyi and wants to know
what the market rates for services and leasing flats in the area. He will of
course pays for lunch!
Friday
I manage to
interest a small oil and gas company in taking a look at some new luxury
apartments in a development in Ikeja in the hope that they will take it. It
fits their specifications and client profile. It has been a fairly dull week and am looking
forward to the weekend. I am showing some interested buyers a house in Oniru,
tomorrow morning. The house has been on the market for a few months, so I am
hoping it will be sold soon. The asking price may need to be lowered as we can
all see that investors are being cautious with the amount of money they are
spending now. Houses for sale are
spending much longer on the market.
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