Aare Adeleke Adebesin is a guru in the property sector. He is the CEO of Kings Intercontinental Homes and Properties. The company is about 5 years old and it has metamorphosed from a dredging company to property and construction firm.
Now, the company has many projects across Lagos State at affordable prices.
Two weeks back, Aare Adeleke was at the City People Head Office, Gbagada in Lagos and he spoke on many issues about real estate. He spoke with ISAAC ABIMBADE & BIODUN ALAO, on how his company is breaking barriers. He also spoke on why Ooni of Ife agreed to be the Chairman of his company, 2 years back. Below are excerpts.
Let me start by asking you to share with us what your real estate firm, Kings Intercontinental Homes & Properties has done in the last year?
In the last one year, Kings Intercontinental Homes & Properties has done a lot. We have done beyond what we did before.
Before now, we normally partnered with landowners; the community landowners. But we have moved beyond that, we are now partnering with the government. As I speak, we have quite a number of projects with the Lagos State Government, and we are doing the same with Ogun State Government. We have taken the leap to further strengthen our beat because we all know when you deal with the government, its like dealing with the rightful owner of land. Even if you have done something with the community, you still need the government to ratify it.
So now, we are dealing with the government. And again, we have taken our beat beyond selling just landed properties. We are moving to the phase of development, construction of affordable duplexes, terraces and bungalows. That’s what we are doing now.
You made mention of partnering with the government, in what way in particular sir?
We are partnering with the government in two ways: The first thing is to partner with the government by getting their land allocated to our company. Second, we are moving to another phase of building houses for them. They wanted 3-bedroom bungalows for their staffers. We are partnering also partner also with buildings society cooperative of Lagos State Government. And if I am not mistaken, we are covering 93 acres of land for them, and we are putting up 1,000 housing there.
For many of our readers who want to know more about your company, how can you describe it?
The company is all about real estate. As a company, we started off from dredging of land. The government doesn’t have dredging land, but the community does. So, we started partnering with communities to reclaim their land, about 5 years ago. We have done that in Satelite Town, Ibeju-Lekki and even Ajah.
In doing that, we take a certain percentage of the land we reclaim for them. So, from there, we started amassing land and started building, and we now look at how could we sell. The original name of the company was Kings Dredging & Construction Nigeria Limited and we now metamorphosed to Kings Intercontinental Homes & Properties. We have the arm of reclamation and the other arm of selling.
What sort of man are you in this business?
I am Engr. Adeleke Adebesin. I studied Mechanical Engineering, but having worked for Coca-Cola for 21 years, have gathered enough experience in Facility Management because I worked in Coca-Cola in 7 different plants in Nigeria, where I worked in different capacities. So, that has equipped me before now. When I retired from that service, I had to go into real estate.
What is your long vision/plan as a real estate player?
Our plans and vision are quite big and as big as the vision is, we have a good mission to achieve our vision, and part of that is what we have started doing by partnering with the government. We also have some apartments in Dubai before now and we still have it now. And we want to also bring something like that here. We have even done something now that has never been done before and we shall launch that on the day of your event (City People Real Estate Awards). We would be having an icon in the Apple Store and Play Store, where you can download our application and that will enable you to know more about our company and you can ask any question. And if you want to buy land, you will see all the land there. We want to make real estate job seamless.
Can you tell us some of your products and its location and how can people access them?
I have up to 5 hundred acres of land at Igbo Nla, Epe, very affordable at 600,000 naira per plot. We have in Ayobo for 7 million naira, with CofO. The estate name is Royal Imperial Gardens. We have at Majek in Ajah. We have up to 20 acres there, on sales. We would sell parts and develop others. The land there is 20 million per plot, 500 square metres. We have in Surulere, beside the National Stadium. It sells for 40 million per plot. And that is Box 18 Royal Court. I know you have been seeing more of a royal from our estates, and the reason is not far-fetch; I am a Prince of Owu Kingdom, Abeokuta, Egbaland. And again, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, is the Chairman of my company. So, any flier you see, you will see our logo and that of Ooni.
We would also be launching another one called Royal Atlantic Resort in Awoyaya. It will be the best estate to be on the Atlantic shore with a beach to it. So, it’s the beach that makes it so unique, just like Eko Atlantic. Work has commenced there; we have started reclamation of the land which is about 250 acres of land.
We have in Ibeju Lekki, Royal Kings Court and that one is also available for 2.5 million naira.
Do you have a specific payment plan?
Yes, we do: Some are payable in 6 months and some are payable in one year. So, our installment payment is highly convenient. You can pay 30 percent and spread the balance over 6 months or one year, but it varies from one product to the other.
How did your path cross with that of Ooni of Ife?
He is my father now, but he used to be my friend. We are also in the same job. He was into the dredging and from dredging to real estate and construction. The same way I am moving. We met over 5 years ago. So, he keyed into our project and chose to be the Chairman of the company, and he has been the Chairman for about 2 years ago now.
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