UNVEILING NIGERIA'S 'BIGGEST PROPERTY MAGNATE'- THE VERY QUIET MR. YEMI IDOWU

Yemi Idowu

Real Estate Supremo Mr. Yemi "off the radar" Idowu unveiled.

For many his name might not necessarily ring a bell that easily, but amongst those who really should know, they acknowledge him as the supremo when it comes to owning properties for commercial purposes in Lagos and by extension Nigeria.

Forget some braggarts who pretend not to love attention, but who crave such like their very life and existence depends on it. Mr. Idowu here does not want the attention in anyway, as he prefers his very low profile existence and he protects it. He loves and enjoy being totally under the radar.

Imagine that this biggest of commercial property owners, drives himself in a mere Toyota car! (bulletproof though) Very unobtrusive we hear you say, but the property portfolio this great man sits atop, allows him to ride around in as many Rolls Royce as he wants if he wants, but that unneccesarily flamboyant life and lifestyle is what he abhors and is not for him.

From available information Mr. Yemi Idowu owns that humongous, first class estate not too far from Chevron known as the "Northern Foreshore" estate amongst many other estates.

More after the break.


According to another well respected property magnate who is in awe of this enigma, Yemi we learnt is a former banker (a former "Non-Executive Director at Sterling Bank PLC" and in fact a shareholder) and he was also the "former Chairman of Sterling Capital Markets and also Vice Chairman of NBM Bank".

Mr. Idowu is not your regular run of the mill "developer" in the typical sense of it, like many are referred to, but this man is in a class/league of his own (he is said to play in the topmost hierarchy of the Champions league of estate development), someone who builds totally new estates from scratch, with "first class houses/homes, first class road networks, provides electricity and many other first class amenities expected and what have you, his buildings are top class, top rated!

According to our findings, 'Northern Foreshore' alone has not less than 500 homes of various range from 4 bedroom maisonette, to bungalows all totally upscale. So imagine that a few years ago, the cheapest of these were going for between ₦15 and ₦20 million apiece. Now imagine that those who bought for about ₦20 million then, are now smiling to the bank selling at ₦40 million. So just imagine one man owning such portfolio!!!

Though most of the structures in Northern Foreshore are gone, there are now lands in various sizes that structures can only be built to certain specifications on called "serviced plots" going for between ₦20 to ₦60million depending on dimensions.

We also heard that apart from "Northern Foreshore", which though is already a huge success, and is still getting built and getting bigger and bigger by the day, Mr. Idowu also owns another estate known as the "Friend's Colony", another first class estate where a 4 bedroom apartment goes for about ₦60 million Naira now. There's also the Mayfair Gardens, Cadogan Estate and Bourdillon Court.

For you to truly understand Mr. Idowu's incredible portfolio let's tell you a little bit more about him, we heard he was involved in the 1004 Estate Victoria Island, Lagos a while back, which was later divested.

So now you can understand this man who is only just 49, in fact he would just be clocking 49 come December 3, 2017.  An intimidating Nigerian in the mold of Bill Gates, who prefers to look very normal and not drawing any undue attention to himself.

He is the scion of the late great Ibadan, well respected industrialist and super sports philanthropist, in the person of the great Chief Nathaniel O. Idowu, the Okanlomo & Mayeloye of Ibadan then.

He got his Bachelor's degree Bsc in Accounts and Financial Analysis from Newcastle upon Tyne University in the UK and he also has a PGD in Human Resources Management, he is also an alumnus of the famous Harvard business school.

It has been speculated that many of the properties he owns might be in partnership with the Adeola family, that is the Fola Adeola of former GTBank and Yemi Adeola MD of Sterling Bank. Even at that, if that is 100% true you have to have been good and have a great portfolio before you can be entrusted with much more.