Investing in real estate in Nigeria is fraught with a lot of challenges. The Nigerian economy has been unpredictable for more than half a decade, there are many loopholes and red tapes to go through to get started in real estate investing. There’s also the ever-looming uncertainty of getting swindled.
Eleanya Eke has always tried to solve global investment problems and make it easy for Nigerians to get in on the international market. His previous startup BuyCoins(launched with Ire Aderinokun and Timi Ajiboye), enabled Nigerians to invest in cryptocurrencies seamlessly from their naira bank accounts.
His new venture Cashestate, aims to do the same for Nigerians looking to diversify their investments into the global real estate market. Cashestate is essentially a crowdfunding platform for real estate investments in the US. Eke has spent the last 7 years working in the US financial services and consulting industry in a wide range of capacities. He has teamed up with Bosun Olanrewaju and Damilola Lawal who are co-founders of the company. Bosun brings years of software engineering experience to the team and serves as its Product Lead while Damilola brings experience in research, corporate finance and strategy with stints at Vetiva Capital Management and CardinalStone Partners Limited. He serves as the company’s Operations Lead.
To invest with Cashestate, investors deposit a minimum investment of $1000 or can pay the same amount in instalments of $100. Cashestate’s team identifies low-cost properties in high demand areas in the US and purchases them in the investor’s name. The investor receives returns via rental cash flow and property gains over time. The current interest rate on investment hovers between 10% and 12.5% annually while the minimum holding period on the platform is one year. The company advises three to five-year holdings and even longer for the best investments results.
When compared with Nigerian investments and adjusting for inflation, Cashestate’s portfolio has outperformed most naira denominated investments, mostly due to the strong performance of private real estate in the US as well as the advantage of being held in dollars which is a stronger store of long-term value.
To ensure investments are secure, Cashestate invests via a special investment utility vehicle. All property purchases are also 100% insured against the worst case scenarios. The platform also provides all the required information, returns, legal titles and other documents within its dashboard.
Eke says Cashestate will first solve the problem of connecting Nigerians to the real estate market in the United States and will be expanding to other countries soon.