Metro And Castle , a leading real estate firm, hosted its annual realtors hangout appreciation event on Saturday 14th December 2024.
The event was held in Lagos at the premises of one of its newly built facilities at Metro Homes, General Paint Bus Stop, Ajah, Lekki axis Lagos State, and was well attended by both realtors and other notable personalities.
Celebrating the cooperation, dedication and hard work of
stakeholders including Realtors that assisted in sales of its properties, Banks and others, the management as usual put up a spectacular event to bring everyone together in an exciting atmosphere.
The event witnessed a showcase of gratitude, with awards and recognitions given to deserving realtors for their outstanding contributions throughout the year.
Speaking during the event, the Managing Director of Metro & Castle Limited, Mr. Adekunle Abdul who was in company of Executive Director, Mrs Marita Abdul, revealed what drives investors to do business with Metro Homes despite the current economic challenges in the country.
He said: “This year has been pretty tough, there has been a lot of ups and downs, the forecast never comes to reality, but you wake up tomorrow and see all kinds of figures changing, and as a real estate professional, we are figure-oriented, you know, construction is one thing that if you miss the figures, you miss the business, so in the midst of all that, God was able to come through, we are able to see through, we are able to manoeuvre through obstacles. And all the projects that we set out to deliver this year, we have delivered, this is actually the last one, unfortunately the other ones are on the main road, they are apartments, so we don’t build apartments inside, we build them on the main road. I think we delivered over 32 apartments, 2 blocks outside, over 16 units of terraces on the inside, year 2025 project is already starting at the back, as you can see Blockwork are already going on”.
He added that: “The most important thing in any business is brand building, regardless of what the economic situation can say, people will always need shelter, and when it gets tough, they will want to choose or go with the best in the market at that point. So I would say that we leveraged on our brand integrity, we are not on any news, we’ve never been on any social media platform, what you see is what you get, what we promise is what you get, so based on the referrals, people want to invest safely at this period, you can’t afford loss of funds in this economy, and people want to know that they are working with a real estate company that can deliver, so I think for us, out of the 48 plus units, we only have 5 left here, everything has been sold out completely, so those that are buying are buying, that’s the truth”.
Speaking on how he’s been able to pay back to the society, Metro and Castle , Mr Abdul said: we are very big on CSR, at Metro and Castle, our CSR this year was 150 million, we gave somebody a house, one of these houses you are seeing, we dashed it to somebody just yesterday, I announced it to one of our shows, you know, the person is only a prayer partner, he comes to the office, we do prayers together, and then we said, okay, this is what we believe God told us to do, and we gave him his own unit yesterday for free, he didn’t have to pay a dime. Also, you can see that the community has improved from the last time you came here, just last week, we donated 15 solar, high capacity solar street lights to the environment, and we just opened our training center, it’s a 150 capacity hall strictly for free training in the industry we don’t believe we can build all the houses in Lagos or Nigeria, so we have programs for real estate if you want to learn real estate, most of all these realtors here have subscribed, and it’s free, it’s a CSR, so we’ll probably be doing the training twice a month to start with, and then other things, so many things like that are going on”.
Finally, Adekunle Abdul spoke on how real estate can boost Nigerian economy more if it’s backed, by government especially looking into the aspect of mortgage system in the country.
He said: mortgage is working, but not in full capacity, because it will do well if it’s government-backed, but like what I always say, people want single-digit interest, I mean, you can’t be giving a house at 70%, that’s what scares people, and like I said the last time, real estate is the major area that can boost Nigerian economy. Right here in this estate, at least I have over 60 contractors, when I say 60 contractors, they also have factories that have employed over 100, 200, 300 staffs, so if people are buying our houses using mortgage regularly, it means we are building more, and if we are building more, we are keeping factories and industries alive, you know what I’m saying, more employment, more internally generated revenue for the government, and so on, so we always hopping that the government will focus more on mortgage.
Metro and Castle Limited is a foremost real estate company based in Lagos, offering a range of services including construction, leasing, brokerage, and facility management.
The company was established in 2014 and is guided by core principles of integrity and professionalism in delivering projects that are durable and sustainable by global standards.
