At the mention of the word "investment", some peoples' mind, i.e. those that are not properly informed will go straight to equity investment. This is because of the popularity that equity investment has gained. There is no denying the fact that equity investment is a sure way to financial freedom, especially when you are informed on the principles of wealth creation through equities. Another reason for this popularity is the fact that you can start this investment with a very little amount of money, and still hope to climb to the top of the ladder in a short period of time if you have good investment ideas.



On the other hand, real estate investment is equally good. In fact, it can give you more money than equity investments. The price of stocks or shares may drop and take some time before picking up again, but in real estate, it is not so, rather, the price of land is constantly on the increase. It is good to the level that immediately you pay for a parcel of land, the price has automatically changed to a higher level that same day. The price of land hardly goes down. Another factor that is to the advantage of the real estate investment is the population figure. A country like Nigeria has a population of over 140 million, with an increase of 3-4 % annually, this makes the demand for land and houses to be very high, and government alone cannot meet up with this demand. This alone, makes investment in the real estate sector of the economy to be a gold mine.

Real estate investment simply means to purchase or manage land or landed properties. When we talk about landed property, we are referring to houses like residential, hotel, office accommodation etc. These are the ones that are very common in

Nigeria, but of recent, investors are now moving into setting up event centers development, shopping malls, etc and these are very rewarding in terms of return on investments. Just as some factors are responsible for the movement of the price of stocks, there are certain factors that drive or determine the demand and supply of real estate investments. These are factors that make the price of the property to either move high or go down and this depends on people, place or environment and one of these factors is the geographical factor.

This has to do with the location of the property. The economic, social or political activities in an environment have a lot of roles to play in determining the value of a property. Any property in the centre of core governmental or politically active areas, or the economic nerve center of a town or city, always attracts premium price tag. Even if the property is not aesthetically designed, the environment will still push up the price. On the other hand, a beautifully designed structure, with expensive sanitary fittings and well laid terrain, but is located in a poor or remote area will not attract a good price as it is supposed because of the environment where it is located.