Why 2025 is a defining moment for real estate sector in Nigeria

The outgoing year, 2025, is a defining moment for the real estate sector in Nigeria. This is the year when the sector found its real value following the rebasing of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

This sector recorded a significant leap in value, increasing from ₦10.5 trillion in 2023 to ₦30.7 trillion within the same year, and now exceeds ₦41 trillion, reflecting improved GDP measurement methodologies and the broader inclusion of property-related services.

The rebased GDP data show that Real Estate Services contributed 13.36 percent of GDP, making it the third-largest sector after Crop Production (23.06 percent) and Trade (16.42 percent).

Read also: Real estate remains key driver of Nigeria’s economic growth, says FirstCap MD

This is a notable structural shift, as the sector has now surpassed traditional heavyweights such as Telecommunications and Information, which contributed 7.67 percent; livestock, 6.18 percent; and even Crude Petroleum and natural gas, 3.8 percent.

Construction placed 7th position, contributing 3.03 percent to GDP. Together, real estate and construction account for nearly 17 percent of GDP, underscoring their centrality to Nigeria’s urbanisation and investment story.

Professional bodies such as the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) and the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) have played a vital role by promoting regulatory standards while ensuring transparency and accountability.

Technology is also accelerating formalization. With platforms offering online listings, virtual property inspections, and mobile payment systems, Nigeria’s real-estate market is gradually transitioning from an informal system to a more structured, trackable one.

Another major development that contributed to defining the moment for this sector in 2025 was the launching of a Real Estate Investment Fund by the Ministry of Finance Integrated (MOFI), known as MREIF.

MREIF is a N1 trillion low-cost and long-tenored mortgage option, designed as the federal government’s response to the country’s housing deficit, estimated variously at 17 million, 20 million and 28 million units, depending on who is speaking.

Read also: We are redefining transparency in Nigeria’s real estate market – Nwachukwu

Though a public sector initiative, MREIF is private sector-led with special focus on homebuyers and developers, aiming to create a more accessible and sustainable homeownership system.

MREIF provides low-interest, long-term mortgages, up to 20 years; it is funded through a public-private partnership, with the federal government ensuring stability; it has flexible financing, meaning that it allows pension-backed mortgage options to ease homeownership.

ARM Investment Managers are the managers of MREIF, which, according to the promoters, comes as a game-changer, bridging the affordability gap, offering subsidized long-term loans, and integrating pension-backed mortgage financing, and making homeownership easier.

Yet another defining moment for real estate in the outgoing year is the federal government’s  Renewed Hope Housing Programme, which, according to Ahmed Dangiwa, Nigeria’s minister for housing and urban development,  has a lot to offer.

“What makes this programme different is that it goes beyond building houses. It is about restoring dignity, creating wealth, reducing poverty, stimulating local building material production, and unlocking homeownership for millions of Nigerians who have long been excluded,” the minister explained.

By this programme, the minister said, housing has been made a priority in the Renewed Hope Agenda, which supports innovative financing solutions—such as single-digit interest rate mortgages, and zero-down-payment rent-to-own schemes.

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The minister noted that the programme was inspired by a challenge the country could no longer ignore—a housing deficit conservatively estimated at over 20 million units, coupled with decades of limited access to affordable financing and homeownership opportunities for the majority of Nigerian citizens.

“Mr President’s Renewed Hope Agenda gave us the clear directive: reset the trajectory of housing in Nigeria, close the gap, and ensure that every Nigerian—whether low-, middle-, or high-income—has a fair chance to own a home,” he said.

The programme, according to the minister, is built on a three-pronged approach designed to meet the needs of every income segment. They are Renewed Hope Cities, Renewed Hope Estates, and  Renewed Hope Social Housing Estates.

SENIOR ANALYST - REAL ESTATE

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