Cribz Apartments redefining real estate development with smart tech, green energy
When it launched into real estate development in 2015, the management of Cribz Apartments knew there would be hurdles to cross as a new entrant into one of Nigeria’s most crucial sectors.
When it launched into real estate development in 2015, the management of Cribz Apartments knew there would be hurdles to cross as a new entrant into one of Nigeria’s most crucial sectors. But the company was determined to succeed, undeterred by the challenges that beset the sector.
Ten years after, Cribz Apartments not only established its presence as a power house in real estate development, it also went on to gain reputation as one of the brands revolutionising the sector with state-of-the-art, high technology-powered innovations.
Construction of eco-friendly apartments and homes fitted with smart gadgets and green energy facilities has become part of Cribz’ trademark and one of the feats hallmarking the company’s 10-year success story.
Highlighting this breakthrough during an interview with BusinessDay in his office in Port Harcourt recently, Nze Anosike, lead partner, Cribz Apartments and Cribz Construction Nigeria Ltd, said the company’s decision to introduce smart technology and green energy solutions in their homes was necessitated by the global campaign against climate change.
“Our homes now are all smart homes. We’re building smart homes where everything is electronic. You control your phones with your applications. If you’re coming back from work, you can command your heater to start heating water for you; your AC should be at the temperature that is conducive for you to stay in, your television will even be in the channel you want it. Even some gas cookers, you can put your food inside and the microwave will come up. Those are smart homes.
“Then, you talk about smart cities. You have cities that clean up themselves; they run on green energy, solar power. That’s the direction the world is going. What we’re doing at Cribz, we’re also putting that into some of our buildings. Going forward, all our homes are all smart homes that you can communicate to. The ones that are going to come in the future are all going to be smart, where you can communicate with a voice command and have all your applications up on your phone and make life very easy and comfortable for you,” he explained.
Anosike listed collaboration as one of the drivers of success for the real estate eco-system in Rivers State and beyond. He believes that collaboration is essential for the industry’s growth.
“The market is getting bigger every day and the demand will continue to increase. If you put all the developers in Nigeria together, including the government that also develops, we could not do up to 300,000 housing units last year. The market is huge enough for everybody to strive and make money out of it. I’ve collaborated with developers. I built in Reef Court. It’s not my project; they were the major developers. I got some parcels of land there, went in, developed, sold out and left. They still call me for collaboration today. There are still other real estate companies that are reaching out to me (asking) if we can do collaboration. If we don’t see the essence of working together, I don’t think there will be need for them to be reaching out to me.
“Collaboration is key because, take for instance, there are some people today running companies; they’re into sales only, they don’t build. Companies like mine put out articles there for them in the market, for them to thrive. They have staff, they’ve got people working for them. They feed from the likes of us, whereby we provide those services, and if you look at it, the economy is moving because it’s like them adding part of the value chain, making money out of it,” he explained.
In the past two years, cost of accommodation has increased in many parts of the country. Anosike believes that this is caused by population explosion and high demand for accommodation. He explains:
“It simply has to do with the issue of demand. A situation where you have demand outweighing supply, this is what you get. The government of today in Nigeria, we don’t plan for the future. Some of these problems you see did not start today. Some of them started five years ago, ten years ago. I was in Dubai in 2022. With all they have done in real estate, I was still hearing of projects that will come up in 2030, and in my head, I was like, ‘These folks are still thinking ahead of time,’ because they know that the city will expand, population will increase. But in our own case, we don’t plan for that. So, most of these issues we’re currently having now are as a result of things that have piled up in the last five or ten years and they’re coming to play out. It will continue this way until drastic measure is taken by the government.”
Despite being the socio-economic heartbeat of the Niger Delta, Rivers has remained a one-city state, with a high percentage of her population residing in Port Harcourt, making the city congested. For Anosike, opening up the hinter areas and providing them with essential amenities can help decongest Port Harcourt.
“The issue of one city is not only in Nigeria. If you travel around the world, people want to live within their vicinity where they work, they don’t want to travel too much to do the work. But when you have options of staying outskirts of the city, then you should be able to provide accommodation for those people. This is where government has to come in. Take for instance: if you’re driving from Port Harcourt to the Airport, the moment you cross the airport roundabout, you’re facing green area. Drive within those Isiokpo, Elele axis, they’re all completely fallow; people are not living there. So, why are we clustering around the city centre? The reason is because we’re not providing any infrastructure to make commuting from those areas to the city centre easy.
“The ring road that the Rivers State government is doing should have enabled us to expand the city so that the city will be in the middle of the ring road and the ring road goes round; so, within those corridors that are inside the ring, we can start developing those areas into districts. If government starts providing infrastructure in those directions, this issue of accommodation problem will be over. Government needs to start looking at creating access roads, opening up those areas, providing modern-day facilities, modern roads, street lights and all the things that will make life comfortable for them, and you will see people start decongesting the city centre,” he said.
Cribz Apartments may be celebrating 10 years of sustenance, but it was not achieved on a platter of gold. According to Anosike, financial constraints and inability to access loan are some of the main challenges confronting the real estate sector.
