Buying a piece of land is considered one of the most important decisions a person can make in their lifetime. In times past, it was not unusual to see people measure a person’s wealth by the amount of land they own. The value placed on owning a piece of land cannot be understated because it is one physical asset that doesn’t depreciate regardless of how long you own it for. In fact, the value is expected to increase over time depending on many factors. For some people, buying land is one of those goals to achieve before a certain age or retirement. As a prospective buyer, you have to consider a lot of things because it is not a decision that can be made trivially. You want to be sure that you are making the best decision regarding your investment.
Now, we’ve put together a list of the 5 most important things we feel you should consider when you want to buy property anywhere in Nigeria.
1) Purpose of Buying the Land
Before you decide to buy a piece of land anywhere, it is essential to have a purpose for the land. The question you then need to ask is “What purpose do I want the land to serve?” People usually buy land for any of these three purposes; commercial, residential, or investment purposes. For some individuals, buying land to build a house is what they want to achieve. For some, a place to start a business and create more income. For others, an asset to buy and hold for a period of time, and sell later when the value increases.
And guess what? All these reasons are perfectly okay.
2) Preferred Location
As a prospective landowner, you want to ask yourself the “where” question and consider all the necessary factors as regards location before committing to buying a property. Your purpose for buying could be one of those factors, for instance. If you are thinking of building your dream home and becoming your own landlord, you probably want it to be in a conducive area.
If it is for commercial purposes (like building a shopping complex), you surely want to somewhere busy and bustling on the other hand. In buying land, your purpose plays a huge role in your choice of location. Another example is buying land close to an industrial layout, which may not be conducive health-wise for someone looking to build a house but is perfect for long-term investment opportunities with massive ROI (Return on Investment).
The neighborhood/immediate environment and its closeness to landmarks and significant locations is a factor that should never be overlooked when you want to buy a property. You may want to consider the availability of basic social amenities in the area, like a steady power supply, hospitals, and good drainage networks. Closeness to landmarks is a factor that could significantly affect the value of your land.
This is why it is not unusual to see real estate companies advertise lands, and then include nearby landmarks like airports, trade zones, and shopping malls in the product description. The reason is that it makes for easy description, and it drives the value of the property up as people want to own real estate close to significant locations in a certain place. I mean, imagine owning land in the street next to the Eiffel Tower in 1886, for instance. Come on.
3) Accessibility to Roads
Another important factor to consider when you want to buy property is how accessible the property you have in mind is, to good road networks. For starters, you do not want it to be a place where you have to park your car miles away before getting to your property. Being connected to a good road network has countless advantages, including being able to get what you need when you need it without worrying about the condition of the road. Also, in case of emergency or urgent needs that must be met in a short time, you can leave your house/property with the knowledge that you will get to your destination without a hitch.
4) Budget and Land Size
The budget is an important thing to be considered when buying a piece of land. You must be sure that you are not planning to buy above your financial ability. No matter the amount you might have saved, it is always important to conduct research on the cost of buying land and the extra expenses that are associated with it.
A budget serves as a guide that allows you to make the best use of your funds. You might want to take note of certain extra expenses that might come with buying a piece of land which might include legal fees, agency fees, a survey plan, and the cost of putting up a fence in order to secure your land after purchase (you definitely don’t want to leave it bare), and also the cost of getting all the required documents. All these are some of the extra costs you definitely want to add to your budget from the onset to avoid a financial headache when buying land.
Also, it is important to have a basic knowledge of land sizes as this will affect the value of the land. You should know that a plot of land is usually around 600 square meters (60ft by 100ft) or 648 square meters (60ft by 120ft) in areas with less need for setback (a setback is a minimum distance which a building or other structure must be set back from a street or road, a river or other stream, a shore or flood plain, or any other place which is deemed to need protection). However, sizes might vary per location as some states in Nigeria have their own standard measurement for a plot of land.
5) Security
In this present day and age, the security factor is a very important factor in owning property. You definitely want to find out how secure the environment you’re buying land in is, regardless of the purpose for which you’re buying.
What is the news about the area? Is it safe to live in or buy land and leave it undeveloped for a brief period? What is the crime rate in the area? Is it somewhere you would still want to stay for 5 to 10 years? These are some of the questions you need to tackle before buying a land.
It would be unwise to be aware that a particular area is experiencing unrest and yet insist on buying land in the area with the hopes of building your dream home there. The security of an area also adds value to your property. No one wants to live in a neighborhood where they would be able to sleep at night or a place where they are not sure if their businesses would still be there the next morning. On the other hand, people would gladly pay for an area where they feel like there is maximum security for their lives and properties.
Conclusively,
These 5 points listed above, hold them in the palm of your left hand (like an African mother once said to her son, you know). These are the 5 most important things you should consider before making the decision to buy a piece of land anywhere. You should consider taking that bold step by reaching out to us today and becoming a landlord with our flexible payment plans that enable you to spread your payments for up to 60 months. It doesn’t get better than that, really.
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