Property value in Apapa, Nigeria’s port city, will pick up again on the back of on-going reconstruction of major and arterial roads infrastructure as well as the activities of the presidential task team (PTT) on clearing gridlock, analysts and close watchers of the city’s property market have predicted.
When he came to the port city a couple of months ago on projects inspection, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who is the chairman of the PTT, assured that the federal government would prioritise infrastructure provision in the search for solution to Apapa problem.
“It will take both medium and long term solutions to ultimately deliver to the users an efficient port environment for the economy and businesses to thrive,” the vice president said, adding that these would involve infrastructure development.
“On that score, it has been so far, so good,” Uche Chiejina, an estate manager, noted in a telephone interview with BusinessDay on Thursday.
While the task ream has succeeded, appreciably, in pushing away the rampaging trucks on Apapa roads and bridges, creating easy access to the port city, some dilapidated roads have either been rehabilitated or are receiving attention and these include Wharf Road; Apapa Oshodi Expressway, Creek and Liverpool Roads which are now being reconstructed.
Following from the siege on Apapa environment, the occupation of its roads and bridges and the accompanying gidlock, the premier port city became a no-go-area, forcing out residents and businesses who left behind empty properties whose value has depreciated significantly.
Ayo Vaughan, a retired army general, is the chairman of Apapa GRA residents association. An elated Vaughan told BusinessDay on phone Thursday that hope was in the air for Apapa and its residents, explaining that if the work done by the task team was sustained, the value of property in the city would go up.
He was optimistic that when the electronic call up system expected before the end of this year was installed, it would help to keep the trucks off the roads and bridges permanently. “Once the people who left, especially those who have business here, see that this situation is sustained, they will come back,” said Vaughan who is a member of the task team.
At the moment, over 40 percent of residential buildings in Apapa are empty. Loss in rental income to landlords is estimated at N250 million per annum while vacancy rate in the entire port city is well above 50 percent.
Apapa used to be in the same league with Ikeja GRA. Chudi Ubosi, an estate surveyor and valuer, affirmed in on phone that before Apapa became what it is today, land there sold for between N200,000 and N250,000 per square metre as in Ikeja. “Apapa no longer commands such price; it is hard to get a buyer who will pay N100,000 per square metre of land in Apapa today,” Ubosi noted.
But whereas Ubosi says it might take a long while, up to 10 years, for Apapa to rebuild confidence in potential investors and to patch up its degraded environment and decaying infrastructure, Chiejina sees huge opportunities ahead of the on-going cleaning up, especially for retail and leisure investors.
“I foresee a situation where Apapa will become largely a commercial destination. Though I don’t rule out what is possible with human beings, I don’t see many people coming here to take up new residences except for staff of government agencies. Besides these people, the only residents one will be seeing here are those living in the GRA,” Chiejina said.
He added that besides its closeness to the Island, Apapa remains home to Nigeria’s two busiest seaports, meaning that ports and other marine activities will continue to flourish in the port city and as both the environment and infrastructure improve, people may decide to take residence in the port city.
“Again, houses are still very expensive on the island and so, people who like to be close to the Island but cannot afford its property would still buy Apapa property for investment or residence now that they can access the island in a matter of minutes,” Chiejina noted.
Before now, traffic situation in Apapa was a nightmare and commuting to Apapa roads were considered ‘highways to hell’. This affected the port city whose economy is estimated at N20 billion a day fundamentally, creating in an otherwise alluring city of aquatic spendour a degraded environment that suffocated residents and squeezed businesses.
But sanity is gradually but steadily returning to the city and expectation is that with this, both residential and investment interest will return, leading to increased demand for property.
CHUKA UROKO
