…Lead value appreciation
Over the last five years, spanning 2020 to 2025, property value in Lagos has spiked to unprecedented levels, with Banana Island’s land leading the pack with 540 percent price increase to reach N3.05 million per square metre.
With this, the elite enclave that provides homes for Nigeria’s ultra-rich citizens has reaffirmed its status as the apex of value. It is followed closely by Ikoyi, where land value has appreciated 412 percent to N2.15 million per square metre.
Analysts say these areas remain not only desirable residential locations but also lucrative investment destinations promising strong returns in a relatively short period.
Other Lagos Island neighborhoods have also witnessed significant appreciation. Oniru, commonly referred to as Victoria Island Extension, has seen land prices rise sharply. Data from Estate Links Limited, a firm of estate surveyors and valuers, shows that land in Oniru sold for between N150,000 and N250,000 per square metre in 2020. By 2021, prices had climbed to between N200,000 and N350,000, and today a square metre costs over N1.2 million.
Yemi Stephen, managing partner at Estate Links, told BusinessDay that the rise in Oniru’s value is no accident, noting deliberate efforts by managers and residents to make the area attractive for both living and investment.
Elsewhere, Osborne Foreshore Phase 1 land sells for around N1.7 million per square metre, depending on location, a premium, though still below Old Ikoyi and far from Banana Island’s peak.
Residential properties have also seen exponential value appreciation in Lagos in the last five years for both sales and rentals. For instance, five years ago, a two-bedroom apartment in Oniru went for between N2.5 million and N4 million per annum. Today, a two-bedroom apartment in Oniru goes for between N8 million and N10 million per annum.
A three-bedroom flat in 2020 went for between N3 million and N5 million per annum. Today, it goes for between N10 million and N16m per annum.
Read also: Court restrains Housing Ministry from demolishing Banana Island property
In 2020, a four-bedroom townhouse was sold for N80 million – N90 million. Now, the same size of house sells between N425 million and N550 million, showing an all-time high value appreciation within five years.
A report by Edala Development, a real estate development company, notes that the Lagos property market has demonstrated immense strength, in spite of the challenges in the broader economy and a high interest rate environment.
“While the real estate services sector cooled to a 3.50 percent GDP growth rate in Q3 2025 down from its 8.01 percent peak in Q1 2024, the construction sector surged to 5.57 percent. This pivotal rotation confirms that capital is actively moving away from speculative valuation towards tangible asset creation driven by a massive housing deficit of 3.396 million units,” the report says.
Temidayo Oloyede, co-founder and CEO of the company, pointed out that the rental market has entered a hyper-inflationary regime distinct from the general economy, adding, “while headline inflation decelerated to 14.45 percent as of November 2025, our primary data reveals a Landlord Inflation Gap where average rents in key nodes surged by 105.6 percent, completely detaching from the official inflation baseline.”
All these have piled pressure on the various market nodes, but, according to Oloyede, the pressure is most visible in the tech hub of Yaba, where studio rents skyrocketed by 400 percent from N300,000 in 2020 to N1.5 million in 2025. Similarly, Surulere recorded a sharp growth as one-bedroom rents appreciated by 300 percent to hit N1.6 million.
The report notes that the most aggressive growth in the sales market was recorded in the Lekki Phase 1 corridor where the price of a two-bedroom apartment surged 251 percent, climbing from N70.5 million in 2020 to N247.5 million naira in 2025.
Meanwhile, Eko Atlantic City continues to command the highest absolute values with one-bedroom apartments trading at N400 million per unit.
Looking ahead, Lagos’s property dynamics are being reshaped by major infrastructure projects. The Lekki Deep Sea Port, expected to contribute $360 billion to the economy, and the $3-billion Green Line Rail project are shifting the focus toward the coastal corridor, suggesting continued upward momentum in property values.
