Banana Island Developer Planned To Rake In N22bn Revenue — Report

The developer of the collapsed building in Banana Island, Joe Faraday Limited, projected to rake in over N21.5bn from customers who subscribed to the seven-storey structure, findings by The PUNCH

According to an analysis of the project’s marketing information seen by our correspondent, the seven-storey building, christened “The Woodlands” consisted of 72 units of flats.

The building plan comprised a cluster of one, two, three, and four-bedroom flats as well as five and six-bedroom detached and semi-detached houses, making a total of 72 units.

According to data sourced from Nigerian Proptech-Estate Intel, a one-bedroom apartment in the estate was priced at N80m, while the six-bedroom apartment was put out for N750m.

Other flats: two-bedroom, three-bedroom, four-bedroom, and five-bedroom went for N109,999,999, N199,999,999, N299,999,998, and N649,999,999, respectively.

While the number of each of the various types of apartments in the building remains unclear, the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Estate Intel, Dolapo Omidire, while speaking with The PUNCH on the project, said the average price of the entire prices would provide ample insight into the expected revenue from the project.

Omidire said, “While it is still under construction, they can still change. A couple of one-bedroom units can be changed to two-bedroom units. A couple of two-bedroom units can be changed to four-bedroom units. They will lump it together and somebody will buy it. But if you do an average sale price of all the units and multiply it by 72, that will give you an insight into the value of the property.”

Based on the average price of the project’s marketing information, the expected revenue from the collapsed building stood at N21.5bn.

According to the information, facilities to be enjoyed by subscribers are a boat club, swimming pool, lawn tennis court, squash court, basketball court, spa, fitness centre, reverse osmosis water treatment plant, 24-hour metered power supply, among others

Unfortunately, the building collapsed on April 12, 2023. The development brought the total number of collapsed buildings in Lagos State to 326 between 1974 and 2023. This also means that Lagos State alone has accounted for 59 per cent of building collapses in the country in the last 50 years.

The Building Collapse Prevention Guild had in a report on Wednesday linked the collapse of the building to the small sizes of the columns, which it said could not support the number of floors embarked upon by the developer.

The BCPG, in a statement, said it was deeply saddened by the latest building collapse, saying the incident brought to the fore the guild’s plea to the federal and state government and agencies in charge of building development and control in the states, especially in Lagos State to take a critical look at the building development process with a view to overhauling the system and bringing sanity back into the built environment.

Further explaining the causes of the collapse, the guild said there was also a conflict as to the number of floors specified in the construction drawing, which it said had yet to be approved as of the time of the collapse.

The statement read in part, “It seems that it is only in Nigeria that the practice of building engineering services is thrown to all and sundry and the consequences of the absence of effective control mechanism is the menace of incessant building collapse in the country.

“While the BCPG highlights the above possible causes of the seven-storey building collapse at Banana Island, it throws its weight behind the action of the Lagos State Government for an immediate investigation into the collapse of the building and BCPG being an independent body of qualified professionals highly recommends that at least three members of the BCPG be part of the investigation committee set up by the state.”