Why real estate developers are ‘feasting’ on Ikeja GRA—Experts

Commercial potential of the location, huge demand for premium residential and mixed-use spaces, security, nearness to airports and increase urban population have been adduced as major reasons real estate developers are increasing interest in Ikeja Government Reservation Area (GRA).

In addition, real estate experts said the improvement on the GRA’s infrastructure through the Lagos State Government’s urban renewal scheme was an added advantage.

Lagos’ Ikeja GRA’s location, an upscale neighbourhood of the rich, with serene environment, has suddenly become the haven of luxury hotels, banks, commercial properties and luxurious residential apartments, no thanks to the real estate developers and investors alike, dotting the landscape with luxury high-rise apartments.

Everywhere in Ikeja GRA, you will find new  building developments going on to the delight of investors and high-net-worth accommodation seekers

Justifying reason for the development, the immediate past president of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr Johnbull Amayaevbo, said that quest for value-profit was purely responsible.

“People are investing to make money.  Ikeja GRA has big plots of land. It could be up to one acre. Developers are there to make money,” he said.

Mr Temitope Ajayi, a Senior Special Assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, observed that real estate developers have taken over and “feasting” on GRA Ikeja in a race for redevelopment.

With the current rate of redevelopment, he said he there are up to 20 of the old houses still standing.

He noted that because of rental yields and government’s approval for urban renewal, redevelopment has become inevitable and extremely profitable.

Corroborating Amayaevbo, a real estate consultant, Mr. James Omeiza, said the reason developers are currently trooping to Ikeja GRA is not far-fetched: value density.

He said the old colonial-style houses sitting on large plots were grossly underutilised compared to the commercial potential of the area.

According to him, demands for premium residential and mixed use spaces in Ikeja have skyrocketed, adding that land prices have tripled and that developers are maximising returns by replacing the outdated structures with multiple luxury units.

Omeiza, an estate surveyor and valuer, said that he is currently handling a project in the old ikeja GRA.

“In fact, I derived a formular, after carrying out two years extensive feasibility and viability study on the potentials of redeveloping old Ikeja GRA residential houses:

Land value + low density old houses + strong demand = aggressive redevelopment boom.

“Anyone whose grandfather owns land or an old house anywhere in Ikeja GRA like Isaac John, Joel Ogunaike, Oduduwa Crescent, Herbert Macaulay Crescent, should know that they are sitting on a gold mine in disguise,” he said.