Dr. Bamidele Onalaja is the CEO of RevolutionPlus Property. One of the leading real estate companies in Nigeria. He was our guest at our recent City People TV Instagram Live Chat. During the interview, he spoke about how his company plans to make many people landlords in Lagos, Ibadan and across the country.
Below are excerpts of the Instagram chat.
Let me start by congratulating you for all you’ve been able to do with RevolutionPlus Property Limited. Can you tell us what has been happening to you in the last few weeks of this lockdown?
Thank you, so much. We all know that we’ve been unwillingly locked indoors. But unfortunately we’ve been locked in the house due to the Stay At Home order, because of Covid-19 pandemic. So, for about 5/6 weeks or thereabout, we’ve been at home to make sure that we keep to Governments Instruction and we make sure everybody is safe. It is only a safe and healthy person that can live in any house. You have to be alive to stay at home. Ironically where the Government is telling us to stay in our house. So, if you don’t have a house where will you stay?
How do you see Covid-19 lockdown at home. What effect does it have on your industry so far?
Well, I might say Positive and also Negative. It depends on how you look at it. For example, we realised that we can do so many things Online. We’ve been able to systematically gravitate towards the new era which is the internet. Even after we resume we are going to make use of all the things we have learnt. We’ve been to look at our chapters, learnt new things big time. At Revolution Plus we’ve been able to do many businesses Online. We made money as a company during this Pandemic Period. We also started 3 new projects which I’m still going to talk about. This Covid-19 has affected so many things and companies. It has gone bad on the global economy. Everybody is praying now that God should heal the world. We want this Pandemic to end now!
I learnt RevolutionPlus was able to give out palliatives. Can you tell us about how you feel about it?
One thing I discovered is that, hunger can kill more than Covid-19. People are hungry beyond Covid. so many people are in the informal sector. The Informal Sector has the largest population because they work daily. The likes of Vulcanizers, Mechanics, Furniture, Plumbers. I have many artisans in my site who can’t sit in their houses. They have to go out. These are the bricklayers that work every day and 2000/5000, per day. When they get that they go to their to take care of their family, but all this stopped all of a sudden. Everybody became hungry for food. So, what RevolutionPlus have been able to do in the last 2 weeks now, is that we went to the do trading. We went to 5 communities in Ibeju-Lekki where we have about 12 estates. We identified 5 out of it. We went to the Kabiyesi, the Onise of Ise. We went to Folu, we went to Libya, we went to 5 communities and we gave them palliatives, foods. We gave out 10kg rice, 10kg beans, oil, garri, yams etc even we gave out bags of rice to each community, about 50 bags of 50kgs of rice. We fed over 1000 homes in Lagos alone. The last weekend, we move to Ibadan.
Where we have 4 estates to feed 500 homes. We shared food to all the Kabiyesi’s in these communities and they were so happy. Our plan was to move on Monday morning to those locations but by the time we open our gate as early as 6:30 am over 500 people blocked our entrance on Ring Road Ibadan. They lined up. They didn’t allow us to move. They said they saw us the night before that we were bringing food and they believed the food is for them, so, we had no choice than to give those 500 people and they were so happy. We’ve been able to touch lives and don’t forget we gave cash donations millions to the Lagos State Government and the State government apart from the food donation.
Can you tell us about the various Estates you have?
We have over 35 Estates right now. We have in Lagos, Ogun State, Abuja and Ibadan. If not for the Pandemic we planned to open Abeokuta this last April and Port Harcourt. We have Estate in Lekki here. We have in Ibeju Lekki, Sangotedo, Shimawa close to redemption camp.
We have in Mowe, we have in Ibadan. Most of our estates in Ibadan have Cof O. In Pacesetter Estate in Ibadan when you buy 5 plots, we give 1 plot free, we are the first to do that in Ibadan. We also gave them 12 months interest-free payment plan. We are running our Ramadan Promo right now. We are giving out numerous gifts. Our project in Abuja also; we have 2 projects in Abuja and we are launching an additional one this month.
So, we have 4 projects in Abuja. 4 project in Ibadan, we are launching 4 in Abeokuta. We have up to 18 in Lagos. We are working round the clock to make sure that everybody can benefit from RevolutionPlus.
What will you say is the secret of RevolutionPlus success?
The success is God (laugh) RevolutionPlus was 6 years in April. It’s a very young company and God gave me a vision about 6 years ago. I used to be a Mortgage banker, I worked for 13 years earning a salary, until my wife and I came together to start RevolutionPlus Property company and our focus is affordable housing and affordable luxury houses. What do we mean? We have affordable houses as 800k, 600k, we have properties at an affordable luxury at 40/45 million naira. God has called us to devote for the informal sector, especially the low-income earners, the middle-income earners and the high-income earners. So, we cut across the 3 categories because we believe everybody must have a house. That was the vision God gave me when I left mortgage banking. He said go and make sure everybody owns a home. My wife will tell you anything that will make everybody own a home, I will always do. Then I have a very wonderful team. My wife is my No 1 supporter. She’s the Executive Director of RevolutionPlus. She works round the clock. I’m a project person, but my wife is there making sure that all the projects all our partner, all the finances and everything is well managed beautiful well. Also, God gave me wonderful members of staff. That is why it’s good to be a delight in what you do at where you work because, by the time you start your own, it is how you handle another man’s business that God will give you people that will work for you. I tell you, God gave me wonderful staff that are 100 per cent loyal to RevolutionPlus. And God gave us wonderful partners, our Realtors are wonderful people and they are loyal. They are working with us closely to make sure the brand becomes a global brand. Do you know that we have an office in Dallas Texas (USA). It’s a very big office and we sealing fantastic deals there. Like never before, we are ceiling deals internationally this time like never before because most people are home. They have enough time to look at what we post on our Instagram, what we have on our twitter. They have time now to look at it critically. Before you know it they are subscribing for 3 bungalows. We have bungalows in Mowe and affordable at 6.5 million naira.
We have bungalows in Ikorodu as affordable as 7.5 million naira. We have a bungalow in Lekki for 12 million naira. They are saying “we don’t know you guys have wonderful properties like this” and before you know it they’ve already made payment. So, many of them just believed in us and that is why RevolutionPlus is striving. People are coming to us because of trust. Trust is our watchword and Integrity.
What keeps you going, and how do you manage to deliver some of your ideas and projects?
I have a wonderful team. I learnt so many things when I was working as a staff in the private sector. I learnt Office administration, Structure, Staffing and so many. So, it really helped me when I started RevolutionPlus. One other thing that helps me is that, I think a lot. I always think of new things to do. Now, RevolutionPlus has 5 new companies under it. We have RevolutionPlus Construction and Infrastructure. We have Remarkable Hotels. We have 2 new projects. We are working closely so that everybody can have a home and beyond home, we are going into Hospitality. We are going into Construction. Our focus this year is into Construction, to build ready-made houses. We have ready-made houses in Mowe, Lekki and Ikorodu. We are into Hospitality also. So, the Holy Spirit is my help, my head is always very full and I’m a very busy person. Most of the things I do, I share it with my wife. she’s my thinktank. She thinks for me. We always think together on how to move the business forward. Before you know it ideas would keep coming. So, I thank God I have a wonderful partner and God has blessed me with wonderful staff. If I travel out, of this country for 6 months, the company will run without me.
How do you think the Government can encourage real estate to re-energise the economy?
Real Estate is the 5th largest GDP, after Oil, Agriculture etc. This Covid period has made everybody realise that you must invest in the real estate, because if you don’t have a house where will you live in this kind of situation. And I want people to stop the notion that somewhere is far and all that. Nowhere is far, Ikeja was a bush. I remembered when a friend took me and my dad to Salvation, where DSTV office is, it was a thick bush. When we got there I was asking my daddy what we were doing there. That road was not tarred. It was bushy but the man had a vision. He bought it, he built that house. That property right is going for nothing less than 250 million naira. So, nowhere is far. Real Estate is the driving force, No 1 that will drive the force of the economy after Oil. We are still going to overtake Oil, because, without land, there is no Oil. So, we are working round the clock to make sure that everything works in the real estate sector. Of course, we can’t do it alone, we need government support.
The government duty is to formulate, policies that we aid and assist properties. Lagos for instance, our own Oil island. The Government of Lagos makes so much money on land and all this money they collect per square metre. So, it will make so much sense if Government will take it seriously especially the documentation. Anybody that wants to buy property doesn’t need to go to Alausa or Ogun State in Ibadan. Just go online once you have the address of the property. You will see all the information you need Online. You verify and make your payment under 48 hours. You don’t need to go anywhere. You don’t need to use any bad, short, good or long leg. We need to come to that stage in the state, country as a whole. Thank God the Governor of the State understands business. So, quickly, we need to make land documentation easier, accessible for people that want to invest because that’s where the future is.
Can you enlighten us on where and what they can buy?
In RevolutionPlus, we just launch a property, very beautiful estate. “Houston Park” in Ibeju-Lekki. We brought Houston from Texas down to Lagos here is a new Estate and it’s going for 850k per plot and part is that you don’t need to pay at once. It can be split to 12 months and you will not pay any additional money. We have Brooklyn Court, in Ibeju Lekki also. We have Dallas Court for 1 million per plot. All these Estates are quite affordable. We have Lekki Sunrise Garden and that is about 1.8m coming. Behind Amen Estate, we have Champions Court at 4m per plot. It’s a nice Estate you will love to invest in. We have Flourish residences at Bogije. A plot of land there is 5M. We have already built a bungalow for 12m and 14m. Pay Sangotedo. One of them is selling houses at 38m terrace duplex, 28M at the luxury flat. You can also spread that one for a period of 12 months.
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