Nigeria Is Important Real Estate Market – Pearson, CEO Baron & Cabot

Founder of United Kingdom based real estate outfit, Baron & Cabot, Mark Pearson has assured Nigerians who intend to own properties in the United Kingdom of adequate service to actualise their dreams, saying Nigeria has become an important real estate market.

Pearson who talked with National Wire at the Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos said Nigerians have everything to gain by patronising Baron & Cabot because of the professional services it renders.

“We do not only have offices in Nigeria and Kenya but all around the world. We’re a UK company and we invest in the UK and not in Nigeria, Pearson explained.

Stating further, he said Nigerians investing with them will always gain. “We take on developments and specialise in the UK, we’re trained in the UK. As a Nigerian client, you might want to buy some properties in the UK, and you may just call someone to help you check something out, where there’s safe investment, where you will make money” he said.

Explaining the reach of his company, Pearson said, “We have been doing that in the Middle East, we have office in Dubai and Asia, South Africa, Europe and recently we had a huge amount of request and enquires from Nigerian clients which is why Nigeria became more important market.

“In the last three years or so, we have started working with lots of Nigerians and that snowballed into referrals and we started doing some marketing in Nigeria as well.”

On how he intends to educate Nigerians about his company, Pearson said, “We did three to four million pounds of transactions a month with some Nigerians already, so we’re already quite established here and the reason we’re good is because we do exactly that.

“Our first few meetings we’ve had is all education, how does it work, where would we be looking at, how the mortgages work, how they get protected in terms of investment etc. So that is the first part. We teach you everything, the good the bad, the pitfalls to avoid, all you need to look out for and all we need to do is have the best stock once we’ve told you.

“The second meeting is more of micro, more in terms of your cash flow and your specific mortgage rate and what it means to you,” he said.

He however plans to market to Nigerians on a continuous basis.

“Hopefully we intend to market to Nigerians continuously.   Some clients are actively encouraging us to be here and keep working with Nigerians. It takes us a long time to build the process because to get Nigerian mortgages, we have to partner with the banks. We got landers here and also got in England. We have to partner with our Lawyers who understand Nigerian clients and UK law.

“So it takes long time and lots of results to build these things, and so we’re hoping to be here for indefinite future,” he hoped.

On the strength of the legal framework his company has put in place in Nigeria, Pearson said, “The UK is voted the number one most transparent place to invest in real estate in the world and that’s because of the legal framework that are in place.

“They take four weeks to go through the process for you. It is very thorough and it’s the best system and it’s considered the safest system in the world,” he assured.

With the instability in foreign exchange in Nigeria, Person’s business may be threatened in Africa’s largest economy, but he seems not threatened.

According to him, “This is literally the main driver for most Nigerians in stable economies. It’s up and down a lot but the trend in the last five years has been upward, it is getting worse and it’s going to be worse probably this time next year.

“It’s always frustrating when a client says last year it costs me this, next year, it’s going to cost me even more,” he said.

He however assured Nigerian investors that there is nothing to worry about if they invest. “We have a management company. Strategically as a company we look after the client, they refer us to people. We manage the whole property. It’s a pure passive investment. We packaged this whole thing, it’s 360 degree service,” he said.

Explaining what it will cost Nigerian investors to own prosperity in the UK through his outfit, he said, “You can get your mortgage, you don’t have to put your money to get the value of the property. Our average, clients spend between 50 and 100 pounds on the first investment for property price it’s up to $300,000.

“The ownership is yours from day one and everything is in your name from that day, you don’t need to pay your mortgage to get another one.

“It’s straight forward and it’s no difference between an English and a Nigeria investor. That’s why we have so many clients. As soon as one client goes through it, they see the process, they tell another client.

“I assume it’s going to be related to job security. It’s very hard to prove your income because we can’t get your tax from the Nigerian government like we do in the UK. A lot is based on the property’s income. If the property brings in $1,000 a month, that’s your income. 99% population of Nigeria can get mortgage,” he said.

Stating further, he said, “The mortgage could be anything, it could depend on how much you have, it could be as low as 3,000 pounds a month, it depends on the size of the property.

“In many countries, when it is election, the economy goes up and down. You can buy properties in Lagos and make a lot of cash but you can also lose a lot, same with Dubai,” he said.

Pearson also explained how his business fared during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The market grew faster. We doubled our revenues. Everyone has to keep their money somewhere, even if you keep it in your bank account, you still invest it. In fact, that’s the guarantee to lose money because of inflation.

“You can take out the equity, stock market, unless you know what you’re doing at the moment. When the markets are in turmoil, we do better. Most people keep UK properties because that’s the pension,” he explained.

On his challenges dealing with Nigerian clients, he said, “When we started, it was hard, our first client pave the way. We got some clients who were very difficult to transact with. We had to educate the lawyers. Building the mortgage with our Nigerian client took a long time, but now the customer service is superb. The client doesn’t really how much we have to do to get these things done.

It’s a really exciting one for us, we’re breaking new grounds,” he concluded.