One of Nigeria’s leading online property classifieds portals, ToLet.com.ng has acquired a competing property portal, Jumia House in order to become the leading online real estate market in Nigeria. This was done in partnership with its investor, Frontier Digital Ventures for an undisclosed sum. However according to nairametrics, ToLet, lead by its majority owners, FDV paid Jumia house $500,000.

“The acquisition of Jumia House Nigeria has placed us in prime position to better serve the growing real estate market in the country. Our combined businesses, ToLet.com.ng and Jumia House Nigeria, have the scale and the resources to transform the online property sector for the benefit of property developers, real estate agents and property seekers alike. As we transition to PropertyPro, consolidating listings from ToLet.com.ng and Jumia House Nigeria, there is a brilliant opportunity to ensure Nigeria’s fluid and vibrant property market is underpinned by a robust, innovative technology, which PropertyPro.ng promises to offer,” Fikayo Ogundipe, CEO and Co-Founder of ToLet.com.ng said.

By this acquisition, ToLet.com.ng will merge both platforms under the new name of PropertyPro.ng. With a 65 percent share in the real estate market, PropertyPro.ng will become Nigeria’s property listings market leader.

Over the last decade, the Nigerian real estate industry has experienced significant growth and has risen to become the 5th biggest contributor to the GDP of Africa’s largest economy. Despite a recession, Nigeria’s property market high supply-demand gap fuelled by a 17 million affordable housing deficit has raised property sale and rental prices, with Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, having one of the world’s buoyant property markets and among the highest in the world, for achievable rents at more than US$85/m2 per month.

Notwithstanding the negative growth recorded in 2016, the real estate sector is expected to grow at an average rate of 5.39 percent between 2017-2020.

“Today’s announcement signifies a maturing in the online property classifieds market for Africa. We are now working with an entire generation who are now accustomed to heading online as the first port of call for rental or purchase of properties. We are on a steep growth trajectory, and are now in the very best position, with this acquisition, to deliver a world-class property search service. We want PropertyPro.ng to be the first website Nigerians think of when they are looking to research, buy or rent a property, On the other hand, Agents on our platform will now be to reach more potential buyers, investors and tenants than any other portal in the country,” said Sulaiman Balogun, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer.”

What you didn’t know about ToLet.com.ng

  • ToLet.com.ng was founded in 2012 as Estanode.com.
  • It launched as an online estate agency, but pivoted in January 2017 to become a property classifieds platform and has since grown from 150 to 10,000 agents.
  • Users of the platform can find cheap apartments, luxury apartments, serviced apartment and office spaces.
  • com.ng was built with a collective personal savings of $400 from four Obafemi Awolowo University fresh graduates –Fikayo Ogundipe, Sulaiman Balogun, Dapo Eludire and Seyi Ayeni.
  • In 2013, it received a $230,000 seed fund from Jason Njoku’s tech company accelerator Spark.ng and then rebranded to ToLet.com.ng.
  • Since its rebranding in 2013, the real estate classifieds start-up has grown into one of the leading and recognizable online property portals in Nigeria.
  • In September 2016, closed a $1.2 million Series A round of funding from Frontier Digital Ventures.
Co-founders of ToLet.com.ng: L-R Sulaiman, Balogun, Fikayo and Ogundipe

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