Real Estate Unite 2014 Awards Babatunde Fashola, Julius Berger, Stanbic IBTC & More at Annual Awards in Lagos

 

The 3rd Annual Real Estate Unite summit held from Thursday 2nd to Friday 3rd October 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos where participants attended a large gathering of real estate professionals and stakeholders to explore answers to this year’s theme “Igniting the F.I.R.E: Where Lies The Key?“.

F.I.R.E is an acronym for the four factors of ‘Finance, Infrastructure, Red-Tapism and Education’; identified as having the power to grow the real estate industry better. The event welcomed over 2000 participants who over the span of two days took part in a high-level conference, an awards dinner, an exhibition and strategic round tables.

Real Estate Unite Conference

Awards Red Carpet

The summit was officially opened by His Excellency, Governor Babatunde Fashola (Governor of Lagos State). Speaking on education as key to ignite the F.I.R.E the Governor described the issue as a serious matter of self and public education that must be undertaken before everyone fully comprehends issues of mortgage and affordable housing—access to which is a fundamental human right of citizens to their government.

Prior to his speech, the Governor had been introduced by Ruth Obih (CEO of 3Invest; organizers of the Real Estate Summit). In her introduction, she said, “We believe that Africa’s largest economy has a strong role to play in making real estate a major contributor to national GDPs across the continent; thus the event brings together global experts to uncover untapped opportunities within the industry.”

Keynoting the F.I.R.E panels respectively were Real Estate leaders such as Kunle Osilaja (Head Real Estate Ecobank); Olumide Olusanya (Professor of Real Estate at Unilag) and Hakeem Ogunniran (Managing Director, UPDC).

The day then wrapped up with the annual Awards gala where the best of the industry were celebrated in twelve categories of winners selected from a competitive pool put forward and voted on by the public. The winners of the Real Estate Unite 2014 Awards were announced as follows:

Developer of the Year: Cadwell Properties
State of Honour: Lagos State
Real Estate Person of the Year: GOV Babatunde Fashola
Best Residential Project: Cameron Green by UPDC
Best Commercial Property: Ikeja City Mall
Leading Property Finance Company: Stanbic IBTC
Affordable Housing Development of the Year: Haven Homes
Construction Company: Julius Berger
Architecture/ Design Company of the Year: Play In Architecture
Best Real Estate Support Service Company: Broll
Outstanding PPP Project of the Year: Ikoyi Link Bridge
Future Project Award: World Trade Center, Abuja

 

Networking & Photos

On the 3rd day, Friday October 3rd, the conference space was transformed into an exhibition venue where over 1000 members of the public had the opportunity to interact with brands.

The event had 3 round tables – the Housing and Finance Round table chaired by Chii Akporji (Special Adviser, Coordinating Minister of the Economy of Ministry of Housing); Keynote address delivered by Sonnie Ayere (Chairman, Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC)) .

The 2nd round table “The Commercial Real Estate” was chaired by Funke Osibudo of Actis and opening adress delivered by Erejuwa Gbadebo (Former CEO, Broll Nigeria).

The 3rd round table saw the launch of the first ever African Woman is Real Estate Network (A.W.I.R.E). According to Ruth Obih, “A.W.I.R.E was launched to increase participation and opportunities for women in the sector. If we in the real estate are committed to our own growth, we must make definitive strides for women’s participation in our sector”.

Sponsors of Real Estate Unite 2014 include Diamond Bank, Grenadines Homes, UPDC, CMB Building Maintenance & Investment Ltd, OPIC, Cadwell, ARM Properties, Structon Limited and Gran Imperio.

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BellaNaija is a Media Partner with Real Estate Untie 2014