Firm targets low-income earners in estate projects

Lagos-based real estate investment company- Messrs Beyond Building has introduced new investment portfolios for prospective middle class, low-income earners and luxury home seekers.

The products are designed for investors looking for opportunities to build real estate wealth through acquisitions of property such as; lands, houses and shops among others to either sell or keep as assets for themselves.

As a starter, investors can key into any of the company’s portfolios with minimum of N100, 000 for a duration desired while the company guides decisions made on the type of real estate investment.

Speaking to media personnel in Lagos, the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Lanre Howells said the company is building a system whereby “if investors need cash, they could get it as soon as possible.

“Someone who wants to get a long-term investment by building a real estate for posterity, his or her kind of acquisition is totally different from someone who just wants cash in his account before he learnt to invest it. When we understand the real estate goal of our investors, we build their real estate asset goal within a certain period of time. Returns on investments come at different rates but the least is 20 per cent per year.

“We have our product divided into monthly contributions into your real estate investment account for average earners. The investment portfolio is in different categories. Some of our products are designed for the upper class, the middle class and some for the low-income earners to help them achieve their aim.

He disclosed that some of its products that people could subscribe to include; King’s point park, Varden Farms and Resort. “People should know that real estate is not tied down to residential alone.”

According to him, over 90 per cent of millionaires who were thrown up in recent time, made money by keying into the business opportunities available in the sector, adding that the venture should be seen as a business platform for creating wealth, than a dormant asset

“A man who feels he needs to build a house before tapping the business opportunities in real estate business, is delaying himself. The sector has grown rapidly at an average rate of 11.4 per cent, contributing 3.9 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and predicted that the industry will grow at 5.39 per cent up till 2020.

Howell explained that the firm encourages people to invest in real estate without necessarily owning a home, stressing that people need to move toward a growth that could make them grow wealth exponentially.

“If 20 of us could own a stake in an estate, the profitability of the investment is shared among us. Our approach to market is that not until an investment is made on a single persons’ name alone. When a portion of my money combine with others and made it in our collective name and we can all rake in money. We help people to grow a little money toward owning a property. You can grow in real estate from the dividend of an investment through trading rather than having the huge capital tied down”.

According to him, the firm seeks to partner people who have the ideology that they could grow wealth from the little they have to own their own homes and be free from oppression of landlords in the city.

“We also structure a mortgage for our investors based on what they have. Real estate is much more than acquiring property or a particular house, you can do multiple trading within the sector without going through stress. Today rent masters has a training platform where people can put their money by making a certain payment from quarterly to yearly. We have some other real estate projects that are short-term investment inclined”.

“We believed that a real estate investment without a clear goal, would lead to bankruptcy. The firm pioneered a modernised farm estate for farmers in Nigeria where farmers don’t have to live like paupers anymore”.

Speaking on the need for social housing in the country, Howell charged government to put in place the right infrastructure and policies for private sector investment in the provision of housing.

“If government had put in place the right infrastructures and policies to encourage private investors and the practitioners, they would source the fund for building. Sometimes, most of the projects that the government is driving come with a lot of back room arrangement. You have government estates everywhere and some have been developed for over 30 years and they are empty while people need housing”, he said.