Where to buy land in Ifo, Metropolitan Area of Lagos

Ifo is a local government area (LGA) in Ogun state, in the Metropolitan area of Lagos. It occupies a total area of around 500 km² and roughly 285 km² contain at least one building per hectare. Two-thirds of all buildings were only constructed since 2013. The LGA is therefore undergoing rapid growth. So, where should potential landowners buy land? When is the ideal point in time?

Before Terrax Africa, you would rely solely on local knowledge and subjective opinions in combination with land prices that could hint at areas that will develop. However, Terrax Africa provides you the tools to conduct analysis and come up with super interesting insights when you should buy land in Ifo, Lagos Metropolitan area, or any other area for which we have processed data available.

Analyzing buildings growth in Ifo since 2013

To determine when the actual building development of a hectare of land takes off, we analyzed the growth patterns in Ifo since 2013. We use a bubble chart for that: each bubble represents the number of newly constructed buildings per hectare between 2013 and 2019, ranging from 1 to 23.

On the y axis, the number of hectares is shown that underwent this kind of growth, the X-axis indicates how many buildings were on average on a hectare before growth took off in 2013. The bubble size represents the sum of buildings as of 2019 that can be found on all heaters that underwent the respective growth.

Most hectares grew between 4 and 14 buildings where previously there were three and four buildings. This means building growth takes off in Ifo once there are three to four buildings constructed or are in construction. Then, for most hectares, it will only take about 6 years to have another 8 – 12 buildings constructed.

Regarding buying land, this means that you have a very high probability of development and therefore mid-term land value increases if you acquire land when at least three buildings are already being constructed on a hectare of land. If only one or two buildings are constructed, it is still uncertain if development will take off. From five buildings, the land value will start increasing significantly as potential buyers start realizing that the area will develop.

Where are the hectares with three buildings in Ifo, Lagos Metropolitan area

Terrax Africa provides you with an easy-to-use dashboard to filter hectares according to different parameters. Using this dashboard, you can easily find out which hectares currently host three buildings and therefore have the biggest growth outlook in the next 6 years.

The map indicates each hectare with a small blue point that is part of the processed data of the Lagos Metropolitan Area. On the left side, you can apply filters. Only selecting hectares with currently 3 buildings, 1574 hectares can be found.

You can zoom into the map and see the center coordinates of each hectare. In the next step, if you want to be opportunistic, you can target these hectares and see if there is land available. Terrrax Africa predicts that these hectares will on average have 8 – 12 new buildings constructed within the next 6 years and new neighborhoods will develop.

Agbato et al (2018)¹ analyzed the factors that influence land pricing in Lagos and found out that the top three influencing factors are good (motorable) roads, purchaser ability to pay, and prime location. The probability for roads is likely to increase significantly once a hectare contains between 8 – 12 buildings as the demand for roads increases and communities develop. With this, small community service businesses will evolve. Therefore, during the take-off of a hectare, land prices tend to rise.

The Opportunities with Terrax Africa

We can do a similar analysis and determine the probability of growth on each hectare of land for which we have processed data. Combining the building detection results from two different points in time, we can see in detail how wards and local government areas grow.

Would you like to find out if a land purchase investment is likely to be fruitful in the future? Do you need information on which neighborhoods develop the fastest and have high infrastructure demand? Terrax Africa is your partner to conduct detailed analysis with the help of artificial intelligence and satellite images. In addition, we can also make use of your own data and generate unique results for your use case.

Reference:

¹S. E. Agbato & O. O. Adetokunboh & A. K. Sodiya, 2018. “Land Pricing Influencing Factors: Perception of Estate Surveyors and Property Developers,” AfRES afres2018_106, African Real Estate Society (AfRES).