Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify drivers of investment performance of commercial property in Lagos with a view to preventing a rule of thumb approach to investments’ decisions. Design/methodology/approach – Questions theoretically underpinned on factors influencing commercial property investment performance were designed and administered to 125 real estate practitioners in Lagos in order to weigh the factors influencing commercial property investment performance in five selected locations in Lagos. The responses were analyzed using the mean item score and the principal component analysis, and the most critical factors extracted. Findings – Individual sub-markets reveal top factors common to each location as cost of building materials, location, quality of road infrastructure, rental growth and security. Findings across sub-markets reveal three critical set of factors. Condition of the premises; the second theme is a mixture of socio-cultural and legal framework; the third is also a mixture of socio-cultural, political and economic factors. Their factor loading’s are: 0.851, 0.828 and 0.805, respectively. Practical implications – Investors, appraisers and property managers may benefit from the findings as they make better investment and management decisions. Also adopting modern construction methods will cut unnecessary cost incurred from wastage of building materials and open the door to private investors with limited capital. Originality/value – This paper is the first to capture five different locations in Lagos. It goes beyond the study of Thontteh and Omirin (2014) which covered only one location. Thus, this study tends to present more reliable findings.

This paper evaluates the performance of direct real estate in a mixed-asset portfolio, to ascertain whether the inclusion of real estate in the portfolio helps it perform better or not. Annual Transaction prices of government bonds, treasury bills, development stocks and commercial papers for a ten year period (2005-2014) were retrieved from the CBN bulletin. Annual rental values for commercial offices were collected through questionnaires administered on 220 out of 309 estate firms within the study location using simple random sampling technique. 165 questionnaires were returned and analyzed. The portfolio risk and returns were calculated with and without real estate to check performance at both levels. Correlation analysis was used to compare the strength of relationship and co-movement of assets. Findings show that real estate performed better than other assets giving higher returns though with higher risk. This can be attributed to the 2009 crash in the Nigerian stock market which made investors turn to real estate on the basis of security. However, correlation analyses of the assets revealed a moderately positive correlation indicating little or no diversification benefit. This paper recommends further study using direct and indirect real estate only to determine the level of performance on a risk and return basis.

This paper examined stakeholders' perception on the competency attained by real estate graduates in Nigeria. Design/Method/Approach: The study adopted questionnaire survey conducted on 357 and 105 Estate Surveying and Valuation Firms in Lagos and Abuja respectively, representing an approximate 57 percent of the total number of practice firms in Nigeria. The questionnaire solicited information on practitioners' views on competencies, in terms of, knowledge, skills and attributes attained by real estate graduates in the industry. The respondents were asked to rank on a 7-point Likert scale, 24 knowledge areas, 10 skills and 10 attributes identified and conceptualized from literature. Their responses were analysed using frequency distribution and mean rating. Findings: The study revealed that practitioners were positive on their agreement to the graduates' attainment on only three (3) of the twenty four (24) identified knowledge areas, namely real estate agency, property management and property valuation. While ICT, communication, Personal/Professional development and Honesty were the skills and attributes attained respectively. This clearly suggests the need for stakeholders (academics, regulators and practitioners) to take urgent steps to bridge the obvious gap between the knowledge requirements of practitioners and the knowledge attained by graduates in the study area. Practical Implications: The findings of this paper can be used as framework for curriculum development and redesign as well as serve as a guide for real estate continuing professional development plan. Originality: This paper is one of the few that have identified stakeholders' perception on competencies attained by real estate graduates in Nigeria.