REAL ESTATE RISK AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR PROJECT VIABILITY (A CASE STUDY OF EKEDO RESIDENTIAL ESTATE, UYO) BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Real estate investing involves the purchase, ownership, management, rental and/or sale of real estate for profit. Improvement of realty property as part of a real estate investment strategy is generally considered to be a sub-specialty of real estate investing called real estate development. Real estate is an asset form with limited liquidity relative to other investments, it is also capital intensive (although capital may be gained through mortgage leverage) and is highly cash flow dependent (Syz, 2008). If these factors are not well understood and managed by the investor, real estate becomes a risky investment. The primary cause of investment failure for real estate is that the investor goes into negative cash flow for a period of time that is not sustainable, often forcing them to resell the property at a loss or go into insolvency. A similar pra...

REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT AND ITS ASSOCIATED CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY    Real estate has continued to play a significant role in man’s evolution. It is not a coincidence that food, shelter and clothing believed to be the three essentials that sustain mankind, also have some linkage to land. Food grows out of land while shelter is affixed to it, and man’s clothing is made largely from what grows out of land. Indeed, whether in ancient times or today’s modern system, land constitutes a significant index for man’s wealth, and as economic activities have assumed more sophistication over time, land has continued to play a central role in their development (Lewis , 1994). There is hardly any business venture that does not require to be supported by some form of real estate: from the small business that requires real estate as offices from where its business can be organized, to the major venture that needs it for its factory. Consequently, through some ve...

PROFESSIONALISING REAL ESTATE AGENCY PRACTICE IN NIGERIA: ISSUES AND THE WAY FORWARD BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY    Professionalizing is derived from the term Profession/Professional. A professional connotes a person with a distinct competence for a specified function or discipline (Ojewunmi, 2005). Such a person would have been trained or has acquired the necessary training in that discipline to become a professional in that field. A professional exists within the context of a profession; a distinct discipline or career path with its own training, qualification and membership requirements and standards. It is in the bid to establish such standards that professional bodies exist to ensure that persons within its fold have the requisite training/qualification and also abide by its rules and ethical standards (Kuye, 1998). A professional in any field is a highly regarded person and is deemed to have a certain level of competence expected of a person in that profession. Rea...

LAND REFORMS IN NIGERIA: ISSUES, PROBLEMS, AND SOLUTIONS BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY    Land Reform generally involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. It may consist of government initiated or government backed approach to property redistribution of land as in the case of Nigeria, an outright transfer of ownership of land from the citizens to the state. The common characteristic of land reforms is usually the modification or the replacement of existing institutional arrangements governing possession, use and title. Thus, while land reform may be radical in nature such as large scale confiscation and transfers of land from one group to another or from one group to the state, it can also be less drastic and conciliatory in nature such as less painful transfers of land to the state and regulatory reforms aimed at improving land administration (Dale, 2007). Land is perhaps the single most important natural resource in the sense that ...

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY    The population of Lagos is at present in excess of 18 million. A megacity status is conferred by the United Nations on cities with a population of 10 million and above. Building and preserving a model mega city comes with great challenges. Providing a sufficient amount of infrastructure and other necessities that would accommodate the needs of over 18 million people could be daunting (Ayeni, 2008). By 2025, officials and population analysts agreed that the number of people in the city and in the surrounding communities, especially, in Ogun State axis, would leap to 30 million. Prominent among the challenges are housing, infrastructure and transportation, particularly in more than 10 local government areas (LGAs) that made up of the state, excluding local council development areas (LCDAs). Besides, the notorious traffic jams, choking pollution, inadequate supply of potable water, insecurity and absence or inadequate social and economic needs...

  BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY    The Real Estate sector offers a great potential source of growth for Nigeria. Until now, the understanding of its composition and growth has been somewhat limited to its required use in Nigerian national accounts. Development is a general word that encompasses all aspects of human life, segments and disciplines, which give direction to the state of an economy. Globally, real estate sector is one of the most profitable ventures of every economy and one of the indices of measuring economic growth of a society. It is a sector that mirrors the economic viability and sustainability of an economy and its poverty level. Though there was no accurate data about housing shortage in Nigeria, it was however estimated that the shortage has risen to over 17 million (Ebie, 2005). Successive governments over the years have attempted to resolve these shortages with various policies but rather than reducing, the shortages kept increasing year in year out...