An Original Framework for Assessing Real Estate Investment Readiness in Nigerian Secondary Cities

This dissertation develops an original Real Estate Investment Readiness Framework for assessing investment conditions in Nigerian secondary cities and applies it to a national assessment of twenty secondary urban centres that are experiencing growth but have attracted limited formal real estate investment. Nigeria's real estate investment research and professional attention have been overwhelmingly concentrated on Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, leaving a significant gap in understanding the investment conditions and potential of the country's rapidly growing secondary cities, where market opportunities may be substantial but risks and data scarcity create analysis challenges. The theoretical contribution is the Real Estate Investment Readiness Framework, which conceptualises investment readiness as a multi-dimensional construct capturing six city-level factors: economic base strength and diversification, population growth and demographic composition, real estate demand fundamentals by sector, land administration and title quality, infrastructure adequacy and development pipeline, and financial market access and professional services availability. A measurement instrument for each dimension is constructed from primary survey data collected across all twenty cities, secondary government data, and analysis of available property market information. Cities are scored, ranked, and clustered by investment readiness profile using factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. The framework is validated by testing its predictive accuracy for actual investment activity levels in cities where data are available. Case applications of the framework for three different investor types, a residential developer, a commercial property fund, and a social infrastructure investor, demonstrate its investment strategy utility. Detailed city profiles and recommendations for improving investment readiness in lower-scoring cities are produced. Keywords: investment readiness, secondary cities, real estate investment, urban development, Nigeria.