Mr Idowu Lamidi is the Managing Director of Dollar Construction. In this interview with WALE OLAPADE, the real estate guru share what it takes to be in the business and why his company in Ibadan is constructing a 105-unit housing estate for the rich and the poor.
What do you do at Dollar Construction?
We are a real estate company with projects in Abuja and Lagos. We are presently working on the new one in Ibadan. It is a 105-unit of housing estate in Jericho Idi-Ishin GRA.
We provide top class quality services to clients with interest and uphold the ethical and quality values of the engineering profession with a mission to be the trail blazer in the field of civil and electrical engineering through value added services.
We are not only into construction, we have other companies like the West Brain Global Resources Limited, Source Model Academy, Pan Media, Fingerlick and Dollar Farm.
We are in Ibadan to show the people what real estate should look like. They call Ibadan the pacesetter state, we are here to redefine that and set the pace.
We are trying to show the people what they don’t know about real estate. It’s not just about you owning a home; it’s an investment platform for the client and not just having a house. If you buy into estate and it’s not appreciating at the rate it should go, that means you are not in business. Real estate is a business that both the rich and the poor should invest in and that’s why we are in Ibadan. We are starting from the lowest point to the highest. This is not just going to Moniya, buy a land and tell people to come and build, that in clear terms is not real estate but a community. A community service is quite different from real estate.
Our project is Westwood Homes, but most people in Ibadan don’t know my real name, they only call me by my company Dollar. So they named it Dollar Estate, it’s a good name also and I think we should leave it like that, but our estate in Abuja is Westwood Homes.
Why did you leave a booming real estate hub like Abuja for Ibadan?
That is a big misconception. Every big man in Abuja is from somewhere, so many people don’t stay in Abuja for the weekend, they go back to their states. Again development should be from rural areas to urban cities.
Ibadan was the Western Region capital when Awolowo was the Premier. The capital was not in Lagos but in Ibadan.
Ibadan is a city, Abuja is a city, Dubai is also a city, Shanghai is a city…The facilities provided made the cities what they are. It is not the city that made the people what they are. That’s what we are trying to do, we are trying to build Ibadan into the city it should be.
Moreso I am from Oyo town, so coming to Ibadan is strategic. I want my people to have a feel of my experience.
The prices of houses in Abuja and that of Ibadan is almost the same, don’t look at it from the angle of Ibadan, Lagos, Abuja. They are all cities.
Ibadan is one of the largest cities in West Africa. The whole of Dubai is not more than Mapo, Beere, Ayeye, we should build our cities so that people can come and learn from us. If Oyo State is saying we are the pacesetter state, let’s set the pace and show people what real estate should look like.
What are the challenges you have encountered so far?
There are so many of them; the ones with the government, the investors and the financial aspect of real estate.
The government is to provide land for developers, the developers provide every other facility, but now to get land is a big challenge.
Secondly, in getting finance, housing is a lifetime thing; the Certificate of Occupancy is usually between 70 and 90 years. When you want to get a loan they expect you to pay back within four years when the life span of the business is 99 years. This is why housing in Nigeria is not thriving.
The society is not also helping because they are not contributing to housing loans. If they are contributing, everybody will be entitled to good housing. Once you are entitled to good housing, you are creating business to developers and that is why real estate is thriving in developed countries.
What is the Ibadan project all about?
We have a housing project here at the Jericho/Idi-Ishin GRA of Ibadan. It’s a 105 unit houses of different levels. We have the three-bedroom duplex, four -bedroom duplex and the five-bedroom ensuite duplex with all the facilities and features you could think of.
People ought to have moved in March, but because of some constraint. This estate is unique as we are sourcing our own power, we don›t want to bring more load to the power grid. So, we are sourcing our power and water and I can assure you that by June this year, we would be fully ready.
Right now the business atmosphere is highly competitive in Ibadan, how do you cope?
Selling land and houses is different from real estate. If someone tells you I’m selling land, come and do part-payment, it doesn’t mean that he is into real estate. If someone says come and buy a house, it doesn’t just count as real estate.
Real estate has different arms. We have estate agents, lawyers, developers, construction companies. A contractor is different from a real estate person.
I could be in real estate and won’t go to sites, I have people building for me and that’s their job, while mine is to bring designs and show what I want. This is quite different from someone going on radio telling people to buy lands and houses.
We are a construction/real estate company. Our company constructs, markets and sells. We do a comprehensive design. We have different stages of designs – the low density, the high and medium. The medium is what we call terrace houses, the low density are the stand alone duplexes while the high are high rise. We have a high density project coming up in Ikoyi, Lagos. It’s a seven-floor plan.
We are into construction. In a layout you have stages of design, you can have a recreational comprehensive, and you may have comprehensive or semi comprehensive. There are planners that work on the plan before giving it to surveyors. So, don›t think people coming on radio are into real estate. There›s difference between estate and community, people often mistake this. Just because you put gate and stop okada from entering a place doesn’t qualify your community as an estate.
An estate provides water, generate its own light, provide security and good roads, they provide all these facilities to show they are in charge of the management of the place; an estate cannot wait on government to build roads.
So, I really don›t see Ibadan saturated in real estate. What most people do here is not just real estate and that’s why we are here to define the terms.
What do you do differently in the saturated real estate space?
We are careful about the quality of work we render to our clients. We are careful not to deviate from the core standard of engineering construction and we do not compromise our standard. We abide by and follow the tenets of construction as well as the laid down rules and regulations. What stand us out again is our staff, they are well trained and certified. One funny thing we normally joke about here is that we don’t operate a boss/employee structure, we are all the same. If you get to any of our sites you won’t be able to differentiate who is who. All the staff know the purpose and the vision of the company. Those in construction, marketing, adverts and sales know the vision and we meet once in a while to strategise.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents
In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…
Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train
The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report…