Real estate investment, definite avenue to wealth creation —Sangodoyin Ibrahim

Sangodoyin Ibrahim Damilare is in charge of Bryhim Holdings and WH Consultants Limited. In a recent chat with ROTIMI IGE, the surveyor spoke on why young people need to invest in real estate and why he is passionate about reducing housing deficit.

How do you discover the business of real estate?

Real estate has been one of the oldest securities on earth and it has a lot of potential. I’ve been eager to be in the business since I was a young child but didn’t know how. My mother convinced me about studying land survey after I finished my secondary education and I grew passion for the profession through the help of the late surveyor, Oludiran Owolabi (Jacoban Survey). He had advised and encouraged me about the profession. I keyed into real estate development four years ago, having discovered and seen a lot of opportunities in it. Most people buy land without realising how best to earn cash flow or make the best use of it. I want to encourage people to invest in real estate development because I believe in building wealth through development. My mother and I established WH Consultant Limited to help solve most of these problems. She’s a retired director of town planning in the Oyo State civil service and a fellow of Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP).

WH Consultants birthed Riverside estate at Iyana Offa, Ibadan early this year; a fully residential and commercial estate which we have commenced its first construction stage and hope to deliver by the third quarter of 2023.

What challenges do you seek to address?

There are opportunities to develop a regional housing strategy and incentivise private -sector housing development. There are three alternative development models and I’m adopting the polycentric regional model which is a multi-modal approach to creating a planned compact urban form. This model would create a sustainable and livable environment. Estate development also create job opportunities and employment (direct and indirect)

Another challenge is to sensitise people about real estate investment and development. Most people are always skceptical about investing or purchasing property because of the issues and scam involved and that’s why I always like and advise people to see or get all necessary information, documents and title before payment. Real estate can be easy, accessible and affordable to everyone.

We’re working towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 9 which is industry, innovation and infrastructure development and Goal 11 which is creating sustainable cities and communities.

Housing is one of the basic amenities required for humans. What have you been doing to address this deficit in Nigeria and what plans do you have to ensure that housing is affordable?

I’m working toward making the basic shelter amenities accessible and affordable to the citizens through offering flexible and mortgages plans for our estate and properties projects and programmes in the state.

What challenges have you faced in this business?

It’s not easy but I keep thanking God for being with me with what has been achieved so far since I started this journey. I won’t say it has been a challenge but rather a task. The very first task I faced was getting a genuine and secure land for the establishment of the estate development because it can be very tough not to get scammed but with the right guide and investigation, one can avoid such situation. It’s always good to know about the land before you put your money into it. And that’s what we did and we acquired the necessary paper documents to ensure it was genuine and secure for our esteemed subscribers and investors.

Another task was the finance, where I had to convince off-takers and investors about our estate project and key them into our development and tell them how beneficial it can be for them to be a part. There was a time I had to travel down to Lagos from Enugu to convince some of our investors. So far, the journey has been amazing and I’m prepared for more tasks ahead.

How do you relax?

I like brain tasking work. I like activities that challenge my sense of creativity and knowledge. I read and watch the news because I believe information is the new wealth. I like travelling and I’m open to team work.