How I lost out on a juicy real estate investment due to inexperience – Dr. Seyi Olufemi
Dr. Seyi Olufemi, the COO of Casafina Group, an investment company has revealed how he lost out of a real estate investment which turned out to appreciate handsomely within a space of five years. Dr. Olufemi shared the experience with participants at the just concluded Real Estate Investment Seminar organised by Casafina Group on Saturday 11th December with support from Flat 22.
According to him, he had gone with a friend to check out a stretch of land along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway around Punch/Arepo area some years back.
He revealed that a plot as at then was going for N350,000. While he eventually didn’t purchase any at the time, his friend bought some plots. He says just five years later, checking up on the space with the intention of keying into the opportunity after an Estate had sprung up just behind it, the same plot of land now went for as high as N13 million.
If he had invested back then by purchasing some plots, he said with a note of regret, he would have made a good return on the investment. This, he attributed to his inexperience at the time.
In another vein, he narrated how he was able to join forces with a group of friends to purchase a building with a set of one bedroom apartments in the Mushin area of Lagos some years back for N10,million and after renovation, were able to charge N350,000 per room and all recouped their investment within a very short time.
Sharing with participants on why Real Estate should be a major item in the investment portfolio of anyone individual and even corporate entities, he says it is one of the best sources of investment and a store of value as it in most cases, appreciates with time.
He added that the best source of income after retirement is no longer pension as it cannot be enough considering inflation, devaluation of naira and a host of other reasons. According to him, the world is changing and active income will be fragile and so building a good investment portfolio becomes more important by the day.
He noted that negative events also do not announce themselves but they nevertheless happen and thus we need to be prepared even as he says that despite the devaluation of the naira, the cost of real estate has continued to keep up with it. As such, it is a good store of value to invest in.