Our Real Estate subsidiary, Alpha Mead Development Company, has delivered the first phase of its housing project, Lekki Pearl Estate

Subscribers to the Lekki Pearl Estate will save up to 25% in maintenance cost over the lifecycle of the assets, Damola Akindolire, the Managing Director of Alpha Mead Development Company (AMDC) has said.

Akindolire disclosed this on the Lekki Pearl Estate project site on Saturday, during the commissioning of the first 54 units of Lekki Pearl Estate – a 112-unit energy-efficient, tech-powered housing estate designed for middle income Nigerians.

According to him, “Lekki Pearl Estate is not just another estate, it is a lifestyle. It is an understanding of the socio-economic factors that hamper the home ownership dreams of the middle-income class in Nigeria; and a response to address these challenges”.

“We understand that besides the price of purchase, power and maintenance costs can be a challenge for the middle-income lifestyle and a major discouragement from owning a home. This is a trend with some developments due to poor design and quality of materials. We also understand that delivery time is very important to this class of Nigerians, because they are unable to continue to pay house rent, mortgage and equity contribution at the same time”.

Speaking during the event, Femi Akintunde, Group Managing Director, Alpha Mead Group, said the challenges explained by Akindolire influenced the building approach and method the company adopted in the delivery of this project. “We know that there is no way we will take the same brick and mortal approach other developers are taking and deliver anything different in terms of, quality, experience and value”.

“So, we drew from our wealth of experience as a company with strong history and track record in Facilities Management and designed a housing scheme that will be free from all issues known to increase maintenance and repair cost”.

“In terms of construction, we knew speed is of essence, quality is important, and affordability is key to our target customers. So rather than build with the conventional building methods, we decided to take a technology approach to building. We partnered with a U.S-based formwork company – Wall Tiles and Forms and invested million of dollars in cast-in-situ aluminium formworks that do not only deliver homes faster, but with better quality and cost-effectively”.

Akintunde said with the quality achieved through this technology, residents don’t have to spend money on repairs that other do barely a few months after taking delivery of their houses. He added that the technology can help build faster, so the customers can move in on time, and stop making multiple payments on accommodation. He also noted that the savings made from the reduced man-power needed to use the technology, and near zero construction waste are passed on to the customers, helping them save up to 15% in purchase price when compared to estates with similar specification around the area.

In his remarks, Dada Thomas, Board Chairman of AMDC said that the delivery of the estate is a testament to the fact that Alpha Mead always keeps to its promise, and that technology can play a huge role in closing the widening housing gap in Nigeria.

“It is very important to note that the economic dynamics when we conceived this project have changed, but that didn’t force us to change the quality we promised or ask our subscribers for additional funds. We recognize we had made a promise to the market and the onus of keeping the promise lies on us. Today, we are making good that promise and happy and thankful to the customers and stakeholders who showed immense understanding and support during this period”, Dada noted.

Mutiu Sunmonu, Chairman of Alpha Mead Group, parent company of AMDC said that with technologies like the cast-in-situ system adopted by AMDC and a very good infrastructure plan by government, the housing deficit in Nigeria could be significantly closed. “If the government ensures that there is good infrastructure, developer can focus on building houses and invest the funds they were going to use for infrastructure into technology that could help them build faster”.

The first phase of the technology-powered project, which consists of 56 units of 3-bedroom flats, 4 bedroom Semi-Detached, 4 Bedroom Terrace & 5 Bedroom Fully detached apartments , and located on the fastest growing real estate corridor in West-Afrca, Lekki-Epe, adjacent Lagos Business School was delivered to its subscribers during the launch event which held on Saturday.