Live-work-play communities gain attention in real estate market

As mixed-use communities continue to gain acceptance in the real estate sector, EDIDIONG IKPOTO examines the incursion this form of property development has made into the Lagos market

The real estate industry, like several other aspects of any economy, naturally gravitates towards places of high density and human activity. Regardless of the existence of comparatively cheaper business conditions at the suburbs and areas of minimal human activity, most organisations will most likely site their base of operations at the nerve centres of the town where most consumers and productive people live.

The implication of this gravitation is the creation of healthy and unhealthy competitions between brands who will employ innovative and sometimes aggressive tactics to outdo the competition. For the real estate industry, this competition finds expression predominantly via innovation and creativity and the ability to critically evaluate the industry’s landscape and exploit existing gaps with regard to customers’ needs.

In fact, for companies that hope to edge the competition, it is not usually enough to develop to clients’ and customers’ needs. It also involves predicting trends that will break new grounds by offering home-seekers a wide array of options that goes beyond modern living.

For some, it simply means looking for ways through which home acquisition can be made easier for a wider spectrum of home-seekers, particularly given the fact that owning a piece of property is fast becoming a luxury only available to an exclusive few.

In the 90s, the idea of a Central Business District being separate from residential spaces was prevalent and homes were often in the suburbs of business centres. With a revolution in how we understand work and recreation, spaces incorporating work and leisure began to emerge.

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the attendant consequences that followed the first global pandemic since the influenza outbreak of 1918, a shift in the way people lived and worked gave rise to new innovations in the real estate industry.