•Says “I Jumped Into Real Estate At Age 27”
Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo is one of Nigeria’s biggest pastors. He is the founder of KICC, which has become a big church with branches across the world.
Apart from his ever growing church, he has other passion, like writing books and taking up speaking engagements all over the world. So today, he is in London, tomorrow he is in the US, the next day he might be off to Kigali, then Ghana, then Lagos or Dubai, and the list goes on.
Unknown to many, he is also into real estate. He is a big land owner in Lagos and he is reputed to own large acres of land scattered around Lagos. And he is making big money from it.
A few days back, City People got this great man of God to talk about his involvement in Real Estate and it was an exciting interaction. There was also a lot to learn from his real estate involvement.
We asked him what made him go into real estate at the time he did? And what year was that? “I jumped into Real Estate at the age of 27. I was only 27, when my other young pastor, when the pastor of the church I had come out from persuaded me to buy land and build a house. So at the age of 27, I built my first house. My real big venture into Real Estate was after that, in 1991, being the sole distributor of Christian Literature in Nigeria, representing over 30 publishers. I was sole distributor at that time because, at that time, foreign exchange could not be taken out of Nigeria. It meant that I was the only one bringing in Christian books and people were buying and much of my money was stuck here.”
That was when I was introduced, by some one, to buy land in Mowe, Ogun State. So in 1991, I bought 30 acres.”
“I could almost practically claim that I was the 1st to make Mowe known at that time.”
“There was just about 8 to 9 houses.”
“Subsequently, I bought more and more land, until I owned 900 acres in Mowe.”
“From there on, I began to buy land in other places along the Ibeju Lekki coastal area.”
But my venture started when I was only 27 years old”.
“Did he start small? “Oh yes I did. All great things start small. As a matter of fact, I was reluctant to be a real estate person.”
“I was very fervent, ready for the desire, to just be ready for the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ, when a Pastor who has now gone to be with the Lord, persuaded me to own a property. Any time he said that to him, my reply usually was: Jesus is coming soon.
But once I ventured and built the 1st house, the bug of real estate stung me and now I tell everyone, Real Estate is the only estate that is real”.
The general story in town is that Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo is one of the biggest investors in Real Estate in Nigeria. Is this true? “I would not claim to be one of the biggest investors in real estate in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, my biggest forte is in land ownership.”
“So, I own land all over the place, because Land is the greatest gift from God to Man. Land is what God gave everyone he signed Convenant with. Adamic Convenant was backed with a Land.
Naahic Convenant was backed with a Land. Mosaic Convenant, that is Palestian Convenant was backed with a land.
Even the Convenant of the New Testament, the Bible says I go to prepare a place for you. God believes in Land. Land is the one thing that never dies, never moves, never shifts. Land will always be here. Banks respects land. Nations respect land. You may have 2 masters degree and a Ph.D to accompany it, you can not use them as Collateral. But you can use good Land as collateral”.
“Land increases in value. As a matter of fact, when we talk of the value of the real estate of Banana Island, or Eko Atlantic and other parts of Lagos, it is not the building, because all the buildings are still brick and mortar. What gives value is the land under them. The same sand that builds the house in Shangisha is the same sand that builds the house in Banana Island. Land is my forte. Land is what I believe in”.
How many estates has he developed? “Well, we developed and estate which we marketed, particularly to diasporanians and it was called Blue Stone Garden City, but because we knew that we would not be able to develop all the 900 acres, we opened up and sold the land to others.
So, today, when you go to Blue Stone City. There are several other estates, inside Blue Stone City. So, technically, I founded a city in the Mowe-Ofada axis, based on the 900 acres.
And now you have about 6 Estates inside Blue Stone City, with the likes of Archview and many others as part of Blue Stone City.
We got him to tell us about his latest project: Makarios: The Luxury Place “it is a dream city that we are building on the Lekki Epe Expressway. It is going to be a world class, absolutely outstanding, luxury place to live in, with a world class, water display, that rivals the Dubai Marina, with about 11 ten/ten floor high rise buildings, 192 terrace houses, 18 detached houses, and almost 300 plots for sale. Makarious is going to be a place to Live, Eat, Work and Play.”
“It is going to be a secured city, built with Luxury in mind, with its proximity to the coming airport and the Free Trade Zone, Dangote Refinery, Omu Resort, Itunu Realty, and many other places that are close to it”.
What is the response like to Makarious? “Great”, he said. “So many responses. Absolutely shocking, to many, that some one will take the time to set aside so much of prime land, facing Lekki-Epe Expressway just to build the water display place. It is because Lagos is a place of acquatic splendour we don’t want it to just bear the name.”
“We want to be the estate that is known for true acquatic splendour”.
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