LOOKING AHEAD
Kola Ashiru-Balogun, the Managing Director of Mixta Nigeria PLC, one of Nigeria’s foremost real estate company, discusses what he thinks the Nigerian real estate sector will look like in 10 years.
Text: Temitope Adereni Image: Mixta Real Estate plc
Having being in existence for the past 20 years, Mixta Real Estate Plc stands out to be one of the seasoned real estate companies that have become known for delivering affordable housing which has served as a turnkey solution to solving housing deficit in Nigeria with a focus on customer satisfaction. Obviously, since its establishment, Mixta has weathered many storms but with Kola Ashiru-Balogun, the motivation has been the drive to create affordable communities with social infrastructure for people to live in.
“What we do predominantly is to create communities, so we don’t see ourselves as just real estate or housing developers. We create communities and the communities have more than just houses, we have social infrastructure in there. Within our communities, we have amenities such as the golf course,” he said.
Mixta Nigeria is a subsidiary of Mixta Africa, an ARM Company that invests in real estate development projects across the real estate spectrum within the commercial, retail and residential property segment. They also provide real estate advisory service and take on special projects in medium to large-scale real estate development ventures with the goal of taking advantage of the developing organised retail real estate sector. Mixta Real Estate Plc has earned itself a leading position in the Nigerian real estate sector with over N130 billion in assets.
So far so great, the Nigerian real estate sector has posed a challenge to real estate developers, making the property market somewhat exasperating. On this note, how does Kola Ashiru-Balogun view it in 10 years? “Honestly, when I look at the past 10 years and where we are now, we are in the right direction. People might argue that we are going slowly, but as long as we are going in the right direction, I am fine with that. What I see is, a lot more private institutions will be working with the government. What that means is that the government will be able to enable policies that will encourage businesses or the sector to do better. So, it’s going to become a more institutionalised industry.”
“The way we have housing issues right now, in 10 years, if we are able to have developers that are skilled and a good environment integrated by the government, the industry is going to be more efficient in the way we design. There will be a change in the way construction professionals build. It’s a young industry for now and I think it will continue to grow,” he said.
“Honestly, when I look at the past 10 years and where we are now, we are in the right direction. People might argue that we are going slowly, but as long as we are going in the right direction, I am fine with that.”
Kola Ashiru-Balogun added that if the government starts thinking in the line of giving full support to the real estate industry, there could be an implementation of subsidies for people that want houses below five million and he believes this will cascade the industry.
Kola’s passion for what the Nigerian real estate sector should become is clear and he admits that what made Mixta Real Estate Plc be where it is today is the application of technology. “Technology is quite critical to our operations here. From experience in terms of sale, we have a CRM system that helps us not only track the number of leads that we generate but also help us track the conversion of those leads, the performance of our agents and the correspondence with the client. Regardless, I am able to track the emails or the messages we’ve had with the clients. So, even if I leave the company today, anybody can still see the correspondence with the client. They can look upon the client’s history and see all the touch points the clients has raised in the past.”
“As a developer of scale, you have a lot of land, how do you monitor your land to see if there is any encroachment? We employed several drone apps and drones at different locations to map and study the development of our land area. Gone are those days that we had to send security men to patrol the sites. Drones are cheaper. If drones can be used to fight wars, why can’t they be used to monitor land?”
“Another thing is, a considerable amount of our sales actually comes from online right now but it’s quite difficult as there is a lot of competition online because of the low cost of having activities online. Part of what we identified is that, we need to work with companies like Propertypro. The key thing for us is to align ourselves with the leaders of this industry,” he said.
It’s the 21st century and any company who would not adopt the use of modern technology might be relegated in no time. The advent of online real estate platforms continue to serve as an eye-opener to the potentials of the internet as a whole to real estate companies who will be able to learn something different to enhance profitability. But for a company like Mixta, beyond the efficient use of technology, the scale of operations go a long way in retaining them in this classified space.
“The scale of our operation is a clear difference as we have a long-term view of the market. We are more than just a developer that builds houses, we build communities that we enjoy seeing people live in. It doesn’t give me joy when I just sell my properties to investors and the houses are empty. I think that’s what lacks in a lot of development nowadays. It is more than just providing water and electricity, it is more about the environment and when you see some of our estates like Lakowe, you will see this is what we are doing,” Kola said.
It is all evident in the housing projects carried out by Mixta Real Estate Plc. By taking a look at Fara Park Estate I & 2, Lakowe Lakes Golf and Country Estate, RDP and of course, Emotan Gardens located in Benin City amongst others, it is evident that the vision of Mixta Real Estate Plc is set and unwavering. For 10 million, you will be able to own an apartment with Mixta Real Estate Plc.
Well, everything is not all work for Kola Ashiru-Balogun as he also loves to spend time with his family and at the golf course too.
Featured in Prestige Nigeria Issue 1 Vol. 4 2019
