I am sure most are familiar with the parable of the house built on sand
and the one built on rock. It says a house built on sand can never stand as the
sand will be washed away from under the house because there is no solid rocky
foundation. If you apply this literally
to the amount of property development going on in sand filled areas, it does
not look good. A large amount of property construction along the Lekki Expressway
axis as well as the coastline of Lagos State is on reclaimed sand filled land.
A look at the Eko Atlantic City will reveal how much land has been reclaimed
from the sea at a cost of billions of dollars. The Bar beach waters which was
on the doorstep of the streets of Victoria Island has been pushed so far back
into the sea that you cannot see the ocean anymore, This water that has been
pushed back will of course have to find other outlets, so will be redirected to
areas that did not have so much water previously. Lagos State coastline has
been suffering ocean surges and flooding in the last few years, could this be
the reason why? I am not an expert on this issue and am just wondering where
all the redirected water will go and if the sand filled land will ever be
washed away. Are we facing a future
environmental problem?
The
rate of property development along the Lekki Expressway corridor is so rapid
that the traffic on the only access road to this axis is gridlocked every
morning and evening during rush hour traffic. One of the days last week I decided that instead of sitting in the long traffic
jam, I would explore some of the side roads that I very rarely go into. One of
these areas was an eye opener, there were beautiful houses and apartments under
construction and there was a particular red brick development that would not
have looked out of place in London or America. It was beautifully finished both
inside and outside, the garden was landscaped to perfection. To be honest it
was better than a lot of properties in Ikoyi or Banana Island. The only issue was
that the road leading to it as not tarred and gets flooded each time it rains. Most
of this area was under water seven years ago. It got me thinking that a one can
actually create their own little paradise in an unknown area and this usually
encourages other developers to start construction the area. Many people are
still focused on living in Lekki1, Victoria island and Ikoyi, not realizing
that they could live in a better built property for a quarter of the price,
just ten minutes down the road. and still have all the comforts
On
some of the newly built estates in Lagos you have nature and human beings
co-existing side by side in some sort of imposed harmony. It is not uncommon to
find crabs and snakes in people’s gardens, on the roads and even inside the uncompleted
houses. I had to take a client to a property on one of these new beautiful developments
which has risen out of water, and while waiting outside the estate gates, I had
a look around and could have been in a remote village in Oyo or Bayelsa state.
There were goats and chickens running around, naked children blissfully happy
in their God given skins, untarred dirt roads and bush as far as the eye could
see, women cooking on firewood stoves. Yet when you drive through the estate
gates, you are transported into another world with evenly laid out plots and
houses with landscaped gardens. It is sometimes disconcerting to go from one
environment to the other in one second. But the beauty of this type of living
is that both communities feed off one another. Local shops are set up in the
local communities which cater to the needs of estate community.
Last
year a friend abroad had purchased some plots of land on the basis that it had
been highly recommended. The plots of land were purchased with the intention of
selling them on at a much higher price in a few years when prices should have
gone up. Unfortunately it is proving
difficult to get the paperwork and therefore will be difficult to sell on. This
is fairly common with land purchased from land owners who are happily cashing
in on the demand for land even if on water logged or inaccessible land. The
cost of land is going up alarmingly even though one can still get fairly
affordable plots of land nearer the Free Trade Zone and the further outside
Lagos you go go. Be sure however that you get all the paperwork for the land
before exchanging any money.
It
will be interesting to watch this trend of land reclamation and see what
happens to these homes in ten years time
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