Ruairi Moriarty

I arrived in Lagos this morning for a one week stay. The recent series of critical elections which ended on 26^th April have passed off exceedingly well from a Lagos perspective. The return of the pro-business and effective Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola,  in conjunction with the return of Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan as President, is considered of critical importance by a range of local and international business leaders and investors, who already appear to be activating plans long placed on hold over concerns of a less democratically stable outcome. 

Our company has a raft of instructions as a result, from researching minimum 10,000 sq m vacant warehousing availability in the Lagos area for use as a distribution centre, to approximately 3,000 sq m of office and warehousing space for the subsidiary of a multi-national advertising concern. The recent trend of multinationals to consider seeking office space on the Mainland, as opposed to the traditional location of ‘the Islands', continues to gather pace. In addition to the media concern, we are moving towards final pre-lease terms of a customised 3,000 sq m pharmacy HQ in Ikeja.

On the Islands there is a greater amount of high quality office space available or coming online than we have previously experienced. However with the apparent boost to confidence in the stability of the democratic process and continuance of a business friendly legislature, rents are so far holding firm or gaining marginally over the past year for top of the range space. One new office scheme is confidently quoting asking rents of $1,200 /sq m /pa (however we see this as an effect of such an opaque market and this remains some way above Grade A asking prices).

Lagos continues to evolve at a rapid pace. The land filling off Bar Beach continues for the creation of the Chaghoury's planned Eko Atlantic City, the greening park creations beside major roads are most noticeable for their newness on Mainland Lagos, the SAS Radisson has had a ‘soft' opening, whilst the envelope of the under construction Intercontinental Hotel is now sealed. Progress on the Badagry Expressway by Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd is more evident and this major route will one day form part of the West African Highway, planned to stretch west from Lagos to Dakar in Senegal.

All of the above is encouraging our company to contemplate the creation of a permanent presence here, as an improvement on our usual weekly escapades to this vastly energetic and under-serviced megacity.