The property market in Nigeria is, increasingly, welcoming both international and domestic players offering products and services which the market demands. One of such players is Koloxo Homes, a startup company, whose innovative platform is designed to connect agents, renters and properties. In this interview, CHINYERE AMAJUOYI, the company’s General Manager, shares insights on what they are doing differently. She also speaks on the great potential in the Nigerian market.

She speaks with CHUKA UROKO. Excerpts:

Koloxo is relatively new in Nigeria and not many people know about you and what you offer. Tell us who you are and what you do.

Koloxo Homes is a global property platform designed to connect agents, renters and property owners on a global scale. We do real estate transaction. We provide services free and in a transparent platform unlike other platforms where properties are listed for a fee.

There are two parties to the transaction. You have developers or agents who list their properties and you also have home buyers or renters who are browsing in search of those properties. These listed properties can be seen all over the world.

We try as much as possible to verify and review all the properties listed on our platform and that is part of what we do to ensure transparency. We have various stages of verification beginning with Admin. There is also the legal stage which checks all the legal connections that the properties have. The final stage is done by the manager-team which checks all the information on properties before they are listed on our platform.

We are bringing a change in real estate transaction where transparency is key. We are offering a global stage where everyone can play as we offer opportunity to even fresh graduates who want to start real estate business, but does not have the money.

 

As an international firm, what informed your choice of Nigeria for your operations to the extent of making the country your global head office?

We decided to set up in Nigeria because Nigeria is full of potential and our understanding of the country is different from the negative opinions about the country. The country has human resources in abundance and the cost is relatively cheaper.

Choosing Nigeria, for us, is coming from the running cost. In other countries like Egypt, Pakistan or Philippines, the costs are quite high. In other countries, the salaries of medium to high level manpower is about triple what is paid here. We believe that it will benefit our system when we are in a friendly environment. When you set out to hire people, the database of those who are qualified to work is huge. Many people from the university and other places are ready to work. We have the labour force, low operational cost and huge population which are a whole ecosystem that can serve Koloxo Home.

The property market in Nigeria already has platforms offering basically the same services you have projected. In specific terms, what difference are you here to make?

We know there are existing platforms in the country but most of these platforms are paid platforms. Besides being paid platforms, there are limitations in terms of detailed information on listed properties for home seekers. Because the developers pay, there is a limit to which you can control them. Whoever pays premium stays up and if you pay less you stay low on the platform. Basically, you cannot dictate anything for the agent.

In our case, there is opportunity for everybody to be listed and be seen globally. We don’t charge a fee for anybody to be on the platform and so there is a standard we demand from properties before they are listed on our platform. We demand details on the images, location and everything about the property. You can’t tell us your property is Lekki Phase 1 whereas it is in Surulere.

The difference we bring also is the review and rating of agents. We demand that agents put the full price of their property. We discourage a situation where you put N1 million as rent or price of a property and when we get to the point of payment you start talking about other charges or terms and conditions.

We are, therefore, bringing a change in real estate transaction where transparency is key. We are offering a global stage where everyone can play as we offer opportunity to even fresh graduates who want to start real estate business, but does not have the money.

Being in 125 countries of the world is quite ambitious; it is a measure of acceptance in the global market. In Nigeria, what level of acceptance and interest do you enjoy?

The acceptance was quite good when we started, especially from the agents. But they were not at ease with verifications, ratings and reviews applied to their property. They had issues with the platform and so were asking too many questions. What we offered them was different from what they were used to. They were used to putting images of projects anyhow. Now they have a platform that demands so much from them in terms of standards. It became very challenging to them because they were used to a particular system that did not care what they put out there.

In some cases, you see an agent posting a property he himself does not know where it is and it could be just one room in Lekki or the gate-house of an estate. But in our case, we even demand an authorization letter from the owner of the property before an agent can list it on our platform. We do this to ensure that the agent has the owner’s authorisation to list and market the property. These were the areas we faced challenges from the agents who said we were too demanding. We explained to them that the property buyer or renter needed enough information to enable him make informed buying or renting decision.

However, over time, we have gained acceptance and it is growing incrementally. Every day we see changes. We have not done any advert in the media or mounted billboards. We have only been doing Webinars and people join our discussions. They have commended us for opening up this platform. This is coming mostly from renters, buyers and developers. We are planning to engage an Actor who is going to be the face of Koloxo globally. That is aimed at helping our marketing.

Free browsing and listing are good news for the market, especially for agents and property owners. But what happens to your bottomline, I mean, your revenue?

Koloxo Home is a startup company and such companies usually operate through investors funds. The investors will continue to fund the companies until they grow. You see companies like Whatsapp which does not charge ant fee. It gives you a free platform to operate. It believes that the more users the company gets, the more its value goes up. It is our hope that, in future, Koloxo Home will generate revenue by giving its service to a lot of people.

At the moment, you operate mostly in Lagos. What are your plans to expand to other Nigerian cities like Abuja, Enugu, Owerri or Kano?

In terms of operations, we plan to have people in other cities outside Lagos. We are going to train people to manage these locations and we are going to leverage AI in our operations. In that case, there will be no tables and chairs, anyway.