With the Nigerian entrepreneurs innovating to solve the local problems, real estate cannot be left behind. This makes it a very interesting setting for real estate tech in Nigeria.
Nigeria, a country in West Africa, one that is rich in wildlife reserves and natural landmarks, is an upcoming destination for real estate investment. The developing nation of Nigeria, with a population of 186 million individuals is increasingly relying on real estate development to contribute to its GDP. In Nigeria, the real estate sector grew by 2.12% in the second quarter of 2016 and added 8.64% to the country's nominal GDP. Many Nigerian companies are now coming up with unique technology enabled solutions to solve the local problems of here, like other developing nations.
It is also interesting to note here that while construction of high rise buildings, hotels, and shopping malls can be seen all over Lagos, Abuja and other parts of Nigeria, it is still struggling with a big housing deficit. How bad is it the housing deficit here? Take this- The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics estimates that 700,000 units are expected every year over the next 20 years to be able to deal with this home deficit. However, the country is currently adding only about 100,000 units per year. But this deficit doesn?t seem to deter international and local investment in its real estate sector. Despite being in recession and downturn, Nigeria?s real estate sector has only been growing, and it touted to become the major contributor to its GDP. This means that the scope for real estate tech in Nigeria has just become better. But to see how PropTech can develop here, we should also dive into technology is being innovated and adopted in Nigeria.
Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in Nigeria
There is a reason why the three distinct yet intermingling sectors of innovation, technology, and innovation have been put together in this section. And that is because a combination of these sectors is what is needed, and being used, to solve the unique problems of Nigeria. Even with good human as well as natural resources, Nigeria has continued to remain poor and is now working to create a sustainable, wealthy future. The government is also involving themselves in these fields by creating short and long term ICT (Information, Communications, and Technology) plans to change the way Nigeria is.
The fast growing population of Nigeria is going to put the youth as in charge and drivers of growth and future of Nigeria. Using the keys of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, the youth can make for a bright future, one that is sustainable. Combine this drive with a growth in real estate and you have a winning formula for sustainability, especially for real estate tech in Nigeria.
The economic capital of Nigeria, Lagos, is long been touted to be the silicon valley of Africa that has given birth to some international and local star startups like Hotels.ng, Andela, Supermart and IrokoTV. All of these are companies that are solving unique Nigerian problems, in a global fashion using technology. This gives a good bird?s eye view of the entrepreneurship sector here. Though entrepreneurs are looking at technological innovations, it is not at par with global standards. Small things like availability of steady internet and electricity deter the growth of innovation here, and hence the widespread adoption of technology is also restricted.
Real Estate Tech in Nigeria
If we talk about real estate tech in Nigeria, we need to take a moment to see the technologies that are currently being used here, and how they affect real estate. With the increase in mobile phone usage amongst the population, a lot of technologies to utilize the same are coming. There is still a lack of tech adoption, and tools like 3D printing, VR enabled tours and Big Data are only just entering the market. There is still time for robotics, AI and virtual real estate agents to sweep in and change the game.
The largest tech adoption has been in the sector of listings and rents payment in Nigeria. There are a number of interesting listings platform here that are making discovery and buying/selling of property easy. Another unique solution is in the rent payment sector as rent in Nigeria is paid annually. Some of these startups are:
Land.ng
An interesting start up for real estate tech in Nigeria is Lands.ng, which is an online marketplace for land listings and services related to that. It aims to digitally disrupt the real estate and PropTech sector of Nigeria and has listings of more than 1.4 million plots of land.
HutBay
Based out of Lagos, HutBay is an online real estate marketplace that connects real estate agents, renters, sellers and buyers for them to find and share information. It has more than 5000 listings and over 1500 agents and is trying to bring structure to the otherwise divided real estate sector.
ToLet.com.ng
Another interesting online real estate marketplace is ToLet that has recently raised USD 1.2 million for its Series A round, led by Frontier Digital Ventures. It helps people find properties for sale or rent all over Lagos, helping aid the PropTech revolution.
EstateDesk
EstateDesk, another online real estate portal, hopes to outdo the bigger competition by using tools like news on real estate trends, affordable and eco-friendly housing solutions, tutorials on estate management and a platform for real estate networking.
KoboRent
Very interestingly, mobile service company KoboRent is using SMS to provide a tech enabled real estate rental listings distribution service to help Nigerians fight the high cost of commission here.
Fibre.ng
Fibre works with landlords to provide numerous properties in Lagos on a monthly rent payment basis, truly changing real estate tech in Nigeria, making it an interesting PropTech startup to watch out for.
The way forward for real estate tech in Nigeria
Real estate tech in Nigeria is currently restricted to classifieds and listing websites that aim to make it easy for an average home buyer or apartment hunter. Some innovative technologies are being used by larger corporates but their widespread use can?t be observed. As a developing nation with immense opportunity in real estate investments and PropTech, Nigeria has the scope of becoming a hotbed for real estate tech, given a number of factors. The primary one being government involvement to promote innovation and entrepreneurship and better facilities and education. The entrepreneurship and technology ecosystem is taking off, especially in Lagos, and this can be good news for real estate tech in Nigeria. Speaking of the future, Nigeria has to work a lot to come up to current international standards, and it seems like it?s going to be some time before Nigeria can be considered a flourishing real estate tech or #PropTech destination.
In case you are looking at scaling or launching? a venture on similar lines, you can apply for our virtual acceleration program Excelrate on our website, Yostartups.com, Yostartups' Excelrate program will help you in streamlining and structuring your startup idea. We have limited scholarships and discount packs for deserving startups, depending on the strength of your application, you may qualify for a discount.
Want to know what makes a winning PropTech startup, check out these top 50 Real Estate Tech startups to watch out for in 2018
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In case you are looking at scaling or launching a venture on similar lines, you can apply for our virtual acceleration program Excelrate on our website, Yostartups.com, Yostartups? Excelrate program will help you in streamlining and structuring your startup idea. We have limited scholarships and discount packs for deserving business ideas, depending on the strength of your startup ideas, you may qualify for a discount.
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