Adeniyi Adams is the Managing Director of Knightstone Properties Limited. It was formerly Adaksa Nigeria Limited. Since inception in 2005, Knightstone Properties has never ceased to come up with innovative initiatives in the construction and real estate industry, meeting every client’s need. The vision of the company is to become the leading construction firm in Nigeria with an uncompromising commitment to excellence and innovation.
The real estate guru has paid his dues in the sector, as Knightstone Properties has become one of the real estate companies that offer best products at affordable prices. They have properties scattered around Lagos and beyond.
Last week, City People’s Senior Property Reporter, ISAAC ABIMBADE, interviewed Mr. Adeniyi at Eko Hotel & Suites, and he spoke about his Real Estate experience, his company and why his products are unique. Below are excerpts of the interview.
We have many real estate companies in Lagos. What is your company doing differently from these companies?
If you look at the history of Knightstone you will see that, we actually started as a Commercial Property Developer before we decided to venture into Residential Property Development. Our unique selling points are just about 3. What we do is that, when we say something is affordable, it is affordable. Affordability we know is a very subjective thing, but in Knightstone properties, we go as low as 8 million per flat and that is quite affordable. And not only that, we also allow flexibility in payment plans. We allow people to pay by instalment. When we started, we offered 5-year-long payment duration. Now, we have reduced it to 3 years and that has encouraged many people to be on the property ladder.
What made you go into that sector?
Any sector you want to go into you must first look at your own strength and the opportunity. Yes, there are many opportunities there, especially when you hear about the 17 million housing deficit, but the first thing you need to know is where is deficit. If you draw your pyramid, is the deficit at the top of the pyramid or at the middle of the pyramid or the bottom of the pyramid. If you find out that the deficit is at the lower part of the pyramid, then something must be done. For that person/company, the only product to sell must be affordable housing or land because that is where the market is.
Your main targets are the income earners/informal sector, what are the strategies you have adopted to cater for this set of people?
For us, it’s not only the informal sector. I have, at any given opportunity, always asked people in government, people in private sector about what they are doing to capture the informal sector; the mama selling lace materials on Lagos Island and all the Iya Lojas. They have money! but they don’t have proof of income.
So, what do we do? There must be a standard, the lending standard that this is what you can allow. Again, our identity management is also a problem because abroad, from the day you were born till the day you die they would know where you have lived all your life and that means the bankers would be at peace to give you money, knowning fully well that you can’t run away.
There are many factors, but the informal sector must be captured because that’s exactly where the population is. Another area people are not looking at is the diaspora market. Many of our people would want to come home and many of them have been swindled. They want people whom they could trust with their money. These are the areas we are targeting, the informal sector and the diaspora market.
Where do you have properties and how accessible are they?
Because they have to be affordable, we play more in Ibeju-Lekki axis of Ajah. Though, we have one sharing the same fence with VGC but that has fallen out of affordable. We have Woodland Estate. We have two at Abijan, (Regal Estate and Regency). Our flagship estate is at Sapatiro Gardens Estate. We have a few estates scattered around the entire place.
How affordable are they?
For the affordable ones, the price is ranging from N8 million. The initial deposit is about 2 million and you can pay for about 3 years.
Can you tell us more about yourself?
Adeniyi Adams is the Managing Director of Knightstone Properties Limited.
I have a Computer Engineering background, but I have moved away from that and now into management. I have attended many workshops and seminars both in Nigeria and abroad.
Have you been able to accomplish what you had in mind when you started this real estate company?
We still have a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction. When you are talking of accomplishment, the time I will be fulfilled is when we have taken people away from slums and our next step now is to provide houses that will be cheaper than N4 million. We are looking at one-bedroom flat, studio flat, 2 bed-room flat; to make it so easy for people to afford because we have many people who are just leaving schools and their salaries are not more than N80 thousand per month, .
They must live somewhere. We can’t continue to pretend nothing is happening. Something is happening and people are living in slums and this must be corrected. The government must also help! Why and how? There are many things the government needs to do. First, there is so much premium on land because if I’m buying a land for about 7million, it’s going to affect the affordability of the houses that I’m going to deliver. So, if there’s less premium on land that will help.
Secondly, the registration of land; If you buy a piece of land now, it would be difficult to register it. Look at what Lagos government just did, it increased the cost of survey. Why are we doing that? Multiple taxation is there already, why are we doing that again! We keep saying we want affordable housing, that means government is only paying lips service to the campaign.
They have a lot to do, even in terms of infrastructure. We do the infrastructure ourselves, so why charge us? They would say that before you get your estate, there’s a road, but the bottom line is that, that is a social service and that is why you are collecting taxes from other areas.
You studied Computer Engineering, why did you venture into real estate business?
Yes I did. Well, I think my passion is in building. I’m an indigene of Lagos. I did a bit of IT business, but I felt that my passion is actually in building and offering affordable housing.
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