Listed REITs

Buy shares in a company that owns income-producing property. No tenants, no title searches, sellable in a day.

Buy-to-let

You own the building and collect rent. Highest control, most work, and the paperwork has to be perfect.

Live in it first

Your own home is not an investment in the usual sense, but it removes rent from your life and can be borrowed against later.

Land, held long

Common across West Africa and the highest-risk route for anyone remote. Title verification is the entire game.

Family or joint purchase

Cheaper entry, but only workable with a written agreement covering ownership shares, costs and what happens on a sale.

Property funds

Pooled vehicles managed by a licensed manager. Check the regulator's register before you commit anything.

Comparable sales

Find three to five properties of the same size and condition that actually sold nearby in the last six to twelve months, then adjust up or down for what yours has that they do not. Asking prices are opinions; sold prices are evidence.

Price per square metre

Divide price by usable floor area and compare it with the street or estate average. A number far above the area needs a reason you can name, or the seller is charging you for their optimism.

Income capitalisation

Value equals net operating income divided by the local capitalisation rate. If similar buildings trade at an 8% cap rate and yours nets ₦4m a year, the income says roughly ₦50m — no matter what the advert says.

Replacement cost

Land value plus what it would cost to build the same structure today, minus wear. Useful for spotting developers pricing in profit you are being asked to fund up front.

Rent multiple

Price divided by annual rent. A lower multiple means the price is closer to the income. Screen with it, never buy on it alone.

A formal valuation

Pay a registered valuer you appointed — not the seller's or developer's. It is the cheapest line item in the whole transaction and the only one that argues on your behalf.

Cap rate

Net operating income ÷ price

The yield a cash buyer earns before financing. Compare it with the local average: well above usually means risk you have not priced, well below means you are paying for growth that may not arrive.

Cash-on-cash

Annual cash flow ÷ cash invested

The only return that lands in your account. It counts the deposit, fees and loan repayments, so it is always lower and always more honest than gross yield.

The 1% screen

Monthly rent ÷ price ≥ 1%

A rough North American screening habit, rarely achievable in prime African city markets. Use it to sort a long list quickly, never as a verdict.

The 50% cost rule

Operating costs ≈ 50% of rent

Across a long enough hold, service charges, repairs, management, insurance, tax and empty months eat about half the rent. If your projection says 10%, you are projecting a fantasy.

Break-even occupancy

(Costs + loan) ÷ rent

The share of the year the place must be let just to cover itself. Above about 85% you have almost no margin for a bad tenant or a slow season.

Total return

Cash flow + debt paydown + appreciation

Rent is one of three engines. Being clear about which one you are relying on stops you calling a bet on prices an income strategy.

Interest rates

Rates set what buyers can borrow, so they move prices more than any advert admits. When rates climb, monthly repayments rise, buyers thin out and sellers hold out — transactions dry up long before prices visibly fall.

Supply and building

Prices follow how much gets built versus how many households form. Cities with permitting backlogs and rising population see rents climb regardless of the wider economy.

Currency and inflation

In high-inflation economies property is bought as a store of value, not for yield. That props up prices while rents lag, so yields compress even as headline prices rise.

Diaspora money

Remittances and diaspora buying concentrate in a few estates and corridors, lifting those pockets far above the surrounding market — and leaving them most exposed when the flow slows.

Infrastructure and jobs

Roads, rail, power and a large employer arriving reliably reset an area's price floor. Announcements are not delivery; buy on what is built, not on renderings.

Remote and hybrid work

Where people are allowed to work from reshapes which neighbourhoods and office buildings hold value. It has repriced commercial property harder than housing.