Over the past two years, a once-overlooked stretch of lagoon-front land in Lagos has been reshaped into one of West Africa’s most talked-about emerging real estate districts, driven in large part by the vision and capital deployment of Nigerian developer Akintola Oladejo.
What many saw as marginal waterfront property at the end of Freedom Way in Lekki Phase 1 has begun to rival some of the world’s most desirable urban waterfronts from Dubai Creek Harbour to Singapore’s Marina Bay with long-term value analysts now estimating the full district’s worth could exceed $100 billion once fully built out.
Business Insider Africa Oladejo, the President and Founder of Prestigious Homes Limited, began investing heavily in the Lekki Foreshore corridor around 24 months ago, recognizing the untapped potential of lagoon frontage just a short distance from Victoria Island and Ikoyi.
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At the time, the area was largely absent from mainstream real estate discourse due to weak infrastructure and limited private sector activity. But Oladejo’s early conviction coupled with strategic partnerships and patient capital helped set the stage for rapid transformation.
Central to this transformation was a belief that prime waterfront districts are engineered, not stumbled upon. Oladejo credits traditional authorities, such as Oba Saheed Ademola Elegushi, whose investments in road infrastructure helped improve access and signalled long-term commitment to the area, for creating an early enabling environment.
With improved connectivity, Prestigious Homes introduced a range of residential products from four- and five-bedroom townhouses to luxury villas designed to create visible density and architectural cohesion that would attract serious demand.
The strategy appears to have worked. More than 75 percent of Prestigious Homes’ developments in the Lekki Foreshore district have been snapped up, even while several projects remain under construction.
This strong uptake reflects confidence in delivery standards and the perceived long-term value of the location, rather than mere speculative interest, observers say.
Pricing in the district now places it in Nigeria’s highest residential pricing bands. Four-bedroom townhouses and semi-detached villas have changed hands in the hundreds of millions of naira, while premium five-bedroom waterfront villas have reached upward of ₦1.5 billion, a mark that underscores how dramatically the corridor’s valuation has shifted in a short period.
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While Prestigious Homes has been an early catalyst, the momentum has attracted other heavyweight developers that reinforce investor confidence in Lekki Foreshore’s future.
Firms such as Nedcom Oaks, Periwinkle Empire, and others have introduced high-density, design-forward residential concepts, and purpose-built island developments like Ostia Island have added scale and diversity to the district’s real estate offering. Public-private partnerships, including collaborations like Orange Island, further underline broad commercial interest in the area.
Crucially, Oladejo’s commitment to pricing discipline resisting pressure to inflate prices in an overheated market has maintained liquidity and helped make the district internationally competitive rather than a local speculative bubble.
“Our pricing is benchmarked against global waterfront markets, not local frenzy,” Oladejo has said, underscoring his belief that long-term value depends on credibility and competitiveness.
Business Insider Africa Oladejo’s background from engineering and banking to subsea and real estate and his training at institutions such as the Harvard Graduate School of Design have influenced his approach to execution, risk management, and capital structuring.
Prestigious Homes has also pioneered buyer-aligned payment plans that link installments to construction milestones, widening access to premium developments without compromising build quality.
Business Insider AfricaA growing share of demand now comes from Nigerians in the diaspora, who compare Lagos’s waterfront residential opportunities with global cities like London, Toronto, and Dubai. For these buyers, transparency, delivery certainty, and assets that hold global value are prime motivators.
What distinguishes this story is not just the scale of individual buildings, but the cumulative impact on the urban fabric.
By committing early capital, maintaining disciplined pricing, and applying global best practices, Oladejo and his partners have helped reposition Lekki Foreshore from an overlooked piece of Lagos to a credible, world-class waterfront district with a projected valuation that could redefine how investors and residents view Nigeria’s real estate potential.
Image Credit: Business Insider Africa
