Rural-Urban Migration and its Impact on Nigeria’s Real Estate

Rural-urban migration is a ceaseless phenomenon in Nigeria, as well as in other neighbouring countries. It is the act in which people migrate/relocate from underdeveloped areas, villages, towns, and the countryside, to the city, on the lookout for greener pastures.

In recent years, urban life has been a cynosure for rural dwellers due to the availability of white-collar jobs, quality of living, education, job opportunities, as well as the fast-paced, modern way of life that is distinctively unique from the reality of people living in rural areas.

The factors influencing rural-urban migration can be classified into social factors, (traditional constraints), physical factors, (climate, floods, and droughts), demographic factors, cultural factors, communication factors, urban orientation, and modernization.

The growing population in urban areas is advantageous in boosting economic growth, as well as providing an inexhaustible target market for industries and brands to flourish in their respective businesses. On the flip side, over-population is a menace that presents dominant issues like high levels of unemployment, lack of infrastructure leading to poor living, increase in crime rate, increase in pollution and waste, and the most notorious of them all is the inextricable housing deficit that major cities in Nigeria experience, e.g. Lagos.

The housing deficit in Nigeria has been a norm since the 1970s, due to the unending stream of human traffic that troops into urban areas annually. What the combination of a growing population and urbanization means for the real estate sector is an increased demand for housing especially in mega-cities in Nigeria.

Considering the demographics of the growing population of rural-urban migrators, whose major age group is millennials and Gen Zs, young adults seeking greener pastures, in terms of education, job opportunities, lifestyle change, relationships, etc., the real estate industry in Nigeria is presented with a large potential client base in search of affordable residential options, there is also the added advantage of attracting both local and international investors who are eager to launch into the sea of housing demands and invest in residential properties in a bid to bridge the ever-growing housing deficit in mega-cities.

Ultimately, real estate companies in Nigeria have the potential to thrive, and access local and international investors, as they provide innovative housing solutions to bridge the deficit in property ownership in Nigeria.

Babatunde Bayo Lawal, a real estate mogul and the co-founder of Dukiya Limited writes from Lagos.