The grueling housing market in Nigeria makes it tough for renters to easily find an affordable home.
The founders of the two-year-old startup Fibre have set out to transform the difficult real estate market through their platform designed to lower barriers for renters—especially young renters—looking to find and pay for property.
“In most parts of Nigeria today if you don’t have enough cash to pay your rent one or two years in advance, you can’t find a place to live,” said CEO Obinna Okwodu in a company blog post. “It means that there is a huge cash flow strain on young families who have to worry about how they will find lump sums of money to pay rent.”
Fibre—whose mission statement reads: “We make living easier so you can focus on building your life”— helps renters search their database of properties and find a home in a matter of days.
Renters then have the option to make payments monthly, quarterly or upfront and stay for a flexible period, as opposed to the traditional 12-month lease.
“Our rental market makes life incredibly tough, in a country that needs no assistance in this regard, said Okwodu. “And makes it so that there is a very high barrier to accessing one of the most basic of needs — shelter.”
The Lagos-based start-up unveiled last week at TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF a home-buying and selling platform called “Secure,” which already has $10 million worth of property, according to the company.
The platform will allow people interested in investing in residential real estate to purchase portions of or entire properties and rent it through Secure, according to TechCrunch.
“Our country is full of young people who are working tirelessly to build the future we all want to see. The least we can do is to make sure they can conveniently find a place to rest their heads at night,” said Okwodu.
While Fibre’s primary goal is to increase access to housing and “make living in Nigeria simpler,” the company has plans to expand their property listings to the continent of Africa.
