How To Invest In Lands Around Lekki Free Trade Zone And Cash Out Big

Posted by Karo Itoje in Blog Updates, Land Tips and Advice
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Basically looking to purchase land around the free trade zone in hopes it appreciates in the future. I have no plans erecting a house on the land, pure buying to hold on to for a few years then selling it.

If that’s you, then this page was written for you and I have answered all possible questions regarding this kind of investment.

Why Invest in Ibeju Lekki

If you landed on this page from a search engine then you probably already know why you should invest in Ibeju Lekki lands right now. But if you are not aware of what is going on Ibeju Lekki or you are aware but doubting if the proposed projects will ever come to fruition or you have convinced yourself that it will take many years to happen, let me quickly educate you a bit so that you don’t become one of those people who had the opportunity to invest in Lekki but turned it down because all they could see was bushes and thought it would remain like that for a long time. These people are regretting now because a plot of land today in Lekki is up to N150million. I know because they tell us when we take them for inspection. Unfortunately Life has no rewind button. To correct their mistake some of them are rushing to invest what they can afford in Ibeju Lekki now and you too should do the same.

Currently Ibeju Lekki Lagos is the Hottest Investment destination in Africa, seating on multi billion Dollar int’l projects that include:

Lekki Free Trade Zone
Dangote Refinery
Lekki Deep Seaport
Dangote Private Jetty
Dubai Smart City
Lekki Epe Int’l Airport
Olympic size stadium
Int’l Golf Centers
Beach Resort Centers

And no, some of these projects are not going to take up to 5 years to actualize. The last update about the refinery was that it was going to start full operation first quarter of 2019. That’s less than 2 years from now. Serious work goes on a daily basis in Ibeju Lekki. There’s almost always something new I notice each time I take clients to the area for inspection.

But let’s even say it takes 5 years for things to really kick off. By then everyone is rushing to buy land there. But you already bought when it was really cheap and now you sell and make a return on investment that can be up to 1000%. Which other investment opportunity do you know in Nigeria or even overseas that can give you such return in 5 years?

A word they say is enough for the wise.

Lands around Lekki Free Trade Zone Ibeju Lekki

We have a lot of estates with several acres of land in the Lekki Free Trade Zone area, some before the LFTZ but most of them are after the LFTZ. You see, the LFTZ area is mostly industrial. Just after the LFTZ we have Dangote refinery, Lekki Sea Port, Power oil and some other companies. These are just the ones already up. There are still empty lands within that area and we believe that soon, especially when the refinery starts operation, many more companies including banks will come up. So the residential area in Lekki Free Trade Zone is within about 10-30 minutes drive from the Trade Zone and that’s where most of our estates are located. And the prices of these estates presently ranges from N600k – N6million a plot.

Buying a Land to Hold and Sell Later

Buying a land to hold and sell off later or what some of my colleagues call Land Banking, is not just one of the best investments in Nigeria with high ROI but also requires zero amount of work and maintenance to turn profit. It’s easy. Buy. Move on. Come back 3-6 years later and sell for 5-10 times the price you paid for it. It’s simple enough. But not every investor that does land banking make as much profit. Why? They don’t invest in an area with unique economic development projects like Ibeju Lekki. For example buy a land in Ikorodu Lagos and sell 5-10 years later you will be glad if you make even 200% return on your investment from selling the land.

Read: How Many Years Is It Good To Keep A Land In Nigeria Before I Can Sell?

The Secret to Cashing out Big in Real Estate

Buy as low as possible without giving up good location and you give yourself more room for price appreciation.

I had a client who wanted to invest in Ibeju Lekki. And he contacted me about Lakeshore Gardens that was selling for a promo price of N6million. There are only 4 reasons you should buy an estate that cost N5million and above for a plot.

You are buying the land to build on and live in and that location appeals to you.
You’re after short term real estate investment so you want an already developed area where people are already living in so you can build right away and collect rent money.
If you insist on a land with C of O.
The land is in a great location and has clear indication for quick price appreciation. Example is Westwood Park estate. Between February 2017 and January 2018 the estate got a 75% jump in price. It went from selling for N8.4million a plot to selling now for N14million. Another estate that has clear indication for quick price appreciation is Amen estate phase 2 simply because of the developers behind it as we’ve seen what they did with Phase 1.

However if any or all of those 4 reasons doesn’t matter to you and you want to buy and hold the land to sell later then there are two great options for you that could make you much more profit from your investment. You get to pay less and potentially earn more.

Option 1: Buy lands awaiting excision that sell really low. These lands sells for as low as N600k depending on the location. Although a land awaiting excision has no official title. So this option comes with some risks. What happens if the excision is not approved? Even though you may be compensated by the estate company by moving you to another estate, you at least risk losing the estate you paid for and there’s no guarantee that you will like the estate you are moved to. Even if you like the estate, you very likely will be asked to pay more money to make up for the price of the new estate you are moved to, an expense you may not be prepared for.

Read: Is It Safe To Buy Land In Ibeju Lekki With Its Excision In Process?

Having said that, a land awaiting excision capital appreciation is certain whether the area develops or not. If/when the excision for the land is fully approved a land that sold for N600k can overnight jump to N2million. That’s at least 300% increase on a plot. So imagine that instead of paying N6-N8million for a plot of land with C of O you buy 10 or 13 plots of land awaiting excision. And then the land gets fully excised, you do the math. Your return on investment will be insane!

Option 2: Remove your risks completely by instead buying lands with fully approved excision. The lowest priced estate we have with approved excision is N2million a plot. Yes, you pay a little more than 3 times more here what you will pay for option 1, but the risk of option 1 is real and not everyone can handle that. Nothing like knowing that your investment is 100% safe. So it’s worth the money. And with N6-N10million you still get 3 or 5 plots in place of 1 in the case a land with C of O. And sometimes more is better. I emphasize sometimes because it’s not in all cases. A great example of this is the one I sighted above about Westwood. In less than a year my client that bought from the estate has made N5.6million on his investment on one plot of Westwood whereas estates awaiting excision since February 2017 has still not been approved January 2018 and their prices remains the same. So you have to think about this properly and decide with the information I have provided here what will be best for you, is it buying really low or buying very high? Whichever way you decide to go, I will be glad to help you through the process, just contact me.

Update: 15/03/2020

All I said above is really just how to do land banking and maximize return on investment. However a few things have changed since writing this article. So please watch the video below on same topic for an update on the subject.

For more videos on Real estate investing go to my Youtube Videos page.

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