We went house-hunting in Lagos with a modest budget of $100,000, or about 35-40 million naira. We were searching for a house or flat that we could snag within our budget.
Our expectations were not high, because we figured that at this range we would struggle to find something that would be worthy of our standards. And, Lagos has a reputation for having the most expensive homes in the country – which is true.
40 million naira is a lot of money – don’t get us wrong, but this exercise was more geared to Nigerians in diaspora, to give them a glimpse into the Nigerian real estate scene to see how far their money could stretch.
Abroad, $100,000 is not a lot of money to drop on a house, the average home price in the U.S. is actually closer to $250,000 or (95 million naira).
So we dived right in and began our search. Now, we didn’t start driving the hectic roads of Lagos, jumping from house to house, we started our hunt where most people nowadays begin – the internet.
With the boom of online real estate search sites in Nigeria, we had plenty of options to start our launch, and if you haven’t checked out our last post about our top 5 property search sites, please do.
Propertypro.com was our goto site, but we also relied on a few others since we wanted to be sure we found all the good deals. We wanted to find a spacious home, a minimum of 3 to 4 bedrooms with modern amenities and styling.
Within minutes we found a nice semi-detached duplex in Lekki Palm City Ajah for ₦40,000,000 or ($103,000). We liked that it was brand new, had modern finishes – tiles, kitchen island, and all 4 bedrooms were en-suite. We also liked the balconies and estate surroundings.
Our next find was a semi-detached 3 bedroom in Goodnews Estate- Ajah for 37 million naira or ($95,500) This house had a nice outdoor terrace and a secure compound with natural grass and trees. It had an automatic gate with intercom and convenient access to freeways. Check out the link to the listing and more pics.
Our last selection got our attention because it had a private swimming pool in the back – who doesn’t like their own pool to cool off in? It was a 4 bedroom terraced duplex in Ajah.
It was also newly constructed and had all the modern finishes like marble floor and new appliances. The listing even said ocean view – all this for only ₦38,000,000 ($98,000)?
What are your impressions? Do you think that these listings are a good deal? Can you find better? Please let us know.
We were quite pleased and refreshed that our virtual house hunt was very smooth and easy! Now actually bidding, dealing with agents and closing the deal – well that will be a post for a different day.
The apartments above are expensive (after all this is Lagos not New York) but beautiful.
Nevertheless, the stress on a daily working week day basis, commuting between work and home from the location of those apartments would make you think deep.
Totally agree – Life in Lagos no easy!