ToLet.com.ng, Nigeria’s leading online property classifieds portal, has in conjunction with their existing investors, Frontier Digital Ventures, acquired Jumia House Nigeria, a competing property portal, for an undisclosed sum. ToLet.com.ng will now merge the two platforms over the coming months, under the new name of PropertyPro.ng, creating Nigeria’s Number 1 property listings market leader in the online Property classifieds space, with 65% share of the Nigerian online real estate market.
ToLet.com.ng currently has around 60,000 listings on its platform, whilst Jumia House Nigeria has around 22,000, the vast majority of which are property listings for sale. In 2016, the company secured Series A investment of $1.2m, led by Frontier Digital Ventures [FDV], to expand its operations. Today’s announcement also sees FDV strengthening its portfolio in Angola and Ghana.
The Brainchild of Fikayo Ogundipe, Sulaiman Balogun, Dapo Eludire and Seyi Ayeni, ToLet.com.ng launched in 2013 as an online estate agency, but pivoted in January 2017 to become a property classifieds platform and has since grown from 150 to 10,000 agents. The company has recorded 15% m-o-m growth across all key metrics, including number of listings, traffic and subscribing agents and the 60-strong team now works with thousands of businesses across all 36 States in Nigeria to empower real estate agents with technology back-end tools that are helping to grow their businesses, manage leads and close deals.
Fikayo Ogundipe, CEO and Co Founder of ToLet.com.ng says, “The acquisition of Jumia House Nigeria has placed us in prime position to better serve the growing real estate market in the country. Our combined businesses, ToLet.com.ng and Jumia House Nigeria, have the scale and the resources to transform the online property sector for the benefit of property developers, real estate agents and property seekers alike. As we transition to PropertyPro, consolidating listings from ToLet.com.ng and Jumia House Nigeria, there is a brilliant opportunity to ensure Nigeria’s fluid and vibrant property market is underpinned by a robust, innovative technology. which PropertyPro.ng promises to offer.”
Sulaiman Balogun, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer adds, “Today’s announcement signifies a maturing in the online property classifieds market for Africa. We are now working with an entire generation who are now accustomed to heading online as a first port of call for rental or purchase of properties . We are on a steep growth trajectory, and are now in the very best position, with this acquisition, to deliver a world class property search service. We want PropertyPro.ng to be the first website Nigerians think of when they are looking to research, buy or rent a property, On the other hand, Agents on our platform will now be to reach more potential buyers, investors and tenants than any other portal in the country.” ”We want our agents to leave the marketing to us, so that they can focus on closing more sales. Delivery of exceptional service, quality leads and marketing solutions that help drive sales for Agents remains a top priority.
Over the last decade, the Nigerian real estate industry has experienced significant growth, and has risen to become the 5th biggest contributor to the GDP of Africa’s largest economy. Despite a recession, Nigeria’s property market high supply-demand gap fuelled by a 17 million affordable housing deficit has raised property sale and rental prices, with Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, having one of the world’s buoyant property markets and among the highest in the world, for achievable rents at more than US$85/m2 per month.
Notwithstanding the negative growth recorded in 2016, the real estate sector is expected to grow at an average rate of 5.39 percent between 2017-2020.
