This serves as my final word this year on property investment.

Year 2008 - 2010 can be termed as my years of land acquisition as I channeled all resources and intellect to acquire promising plots in various locations as a way of positioning for future development. I was really a novice in this area as all I knew about investment was stocks. Luckily for me I have been able to take positions in serviced and semi serviced plots that had flexible payment plans ranging from 12 months to 36 months in organized estates in two cities in my country Nigeria and some in emerging neighboring Ghana. The task ahead is to gradually develop them .

Real Estate is an evil because it is very illiquid, it is a very long term investment.
If you need cash you cannot sell one room in your house or slice a portion of your land to solve financisl problems, to buy it back at a future date. This sounds crazy in real estate terms but it is a reality with other investments.


Necessary because real estate is the king of all assets in Africa, as you can never go wrong . This is because demand for housing consistently outstrip supply in most African countries as people migrate in droves from rural areas to urban centers to seek greener pastures.Govts have no solution to the upsurge in demand for housing as they do not have the wherewithal and will power to address the housing deficit problem. There is no owner occupier mass housing schemes for low income and middle income groups as what is obtained in developed countries. For now there is no solution in sight.This reason is a superior arguement to Somali pirates factor in Kenya Property prices, as the pirates will only be interested in cash and carry high end property but not plots of land in the popular mombassa road and Thika road axis of Nairobi.
Mortgage facilities from financial institutions are grossly inadequate as it does not address the needs of small and low income groups, and the self employed. There is a limit to what organized cooperatives (Saccos) can do.

Let me conclude this piecce with what one Mzee in his late 70s told me out of excitement when I told him that in addition to stocks I have diverrsified into real estate to diversify my asset base as I am planning to retire from paid employment in few yeasrs time. Permit me to recall what he said verbatim in bold Italics :-


Young, as you have decided to invest in real estate which is always appreciating, I regard it as something that could last you for ever.

@Young: I did venture into Reals estate as a developer a few months ago. the returns were handsome. I intend to put more effort into developing houses for sale for our brothers and sisters who cannot stand the fundis. At some point, I'll put up some rental units.

Real Estate, watch this space.

from 2 to 3m for 1/8
from 3 to 4m for the 1/4
this only applies to commercial plots ready for development

young, but don't you think the initial capital required for real estate development is high? Thus the reason why most people tend to start off with stocks?

@ young. Vary informative articles. Anything on "Real Estate Legal Hurdles?"
Know someone who thought they'd done due diligence but has their cash tied up because of disputed ownership (plot had two sets of documentation).

Information from anyone out there on shortest period it took to process title documents after purchase?

You never go wrong with real estate unless you get it wrong at the transaction stage.