What Is The Single Most Lucrative Real Estate Investment You Can Make In 2025?

What Is The Single Most Lucrative Real Estate Investment You Can Make In 2025?

In September of last year I wrote an article titled, “The new goldmine? How to Make 100% More with Short Let Apartments in Lagos: A Guide for Real Estate Investors.” 

In my article I wrote on the lucrativity of short lets in Lagos over traditional rentals, and I went into a detailed guide on every single thing you need to know about starting and running a short let lucratively. 

So that was in September of 2024, fast forward to January 2025, and the results are in. The official figures, facts and indices are out and it turns out that I am a real estate prophet. To say that I was spot on would be equivalent to saying that Donald Trump is a businessman – true, but a massive understatement.  

According to a recent report from the BuyLetLive 2024 Nigeria Property Price Index Lagos state shortlet prices rose by a whooping 200% in 2024 alone. This represents the biggest growth till date recorded in Nigeria’s residential real estate sector. 

The locations  that recorded the most growth were Ikoyi and Lekki Phase 1. Ikoyi shortlet prices increased by a massive 60% in 2024 while Lekki Phase 1 increased to just slightly below 60%. 

Other notable areas that saw impressive growth are the high-brow areas of  Lagos Mainland like Magodo, Ikeja, even Surulere, which increased by an impressive 30%.

According to Lagos State Detty December 2024/2025 Report, disclosed by  Mr.Idris Aregbe, Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Tourism, Arts, and Culture.

Lagos state made a whooping ₦21 billion from short let apartments and houses in December of 2024 alone. ₦21 billion!, With that said, there are so many laws that govern our existence and our time here on planet Earth. 

Law of gravity which says what goes up will come down, Law of Inertia which says that an object in motion will remain in motion until acted upon by another force, Law of attraction et cetera but have you heard about the law of real estate?

The Law of real estate says that you are either among the property owners making money or you are among the renters or boarders paying the property owners money.

Now that I have established to you that the short let property market generated a whooping ₦21 billion in the month of December alone, my question to you is, are you among the property owners who took a piece of this ₦21 billion cake and made money with their short let properties be it apartments or houses or are you among the people who patronised short let properties owners this December?

In real estate you are either owning and making  money or renting and paying money. 

If you are among  the property owners who took their piece of the ₦21 billion generated in December, massive congratulations to you but don’t rejoice too much yet, Why? Don’t worry I will come back to you.

If you do not yet own a short let property in Lagos and thus made no money whatsoever when others were cashing out like lottery winners, the only questions I have for you is, what are you waiting for? Do you have an allergic reaction to making money from lucrative real estate opportunities?

This finally brings me to the question that I asked in my headline, what is the single most lucrative real estate investment you can make in 2025?

I ask this question because for those of us who own and run companies or big businesses, you know that at all times there are usually 10 plus different things you and your team could do to move your company forward. 

At all times there are usually 10 plus different actions to take, but out of this 20 or 15 different actions to take only a few of them, only 1 or at most 2 of them has the potential to triple, even 10X your company’s or business’s revenue, others are just noise.

Your job as the CEO is to cut through the noise, identify those 1 or 2 actions that if taken will move the most needle and execute on them. 

Same exact thing applies in real estate investing.  The truth is that there are so many ways to make money from real estate so at all times there are usually a lot of things, different real estate models you could invest in. 

Your success as a real estate investor hinges and depends totally on your ability to identify the most suitable and lucrative real estate investment for you at any moment and investing in it at the right time. 

Identifying that one real estate investment that when you invest in will give you the most returns and going all in. That is what determines your success as a real estate investor. 

Now to be honest with you, as long as cash flow is concerned, the single best move you can make today, the single most lucrative real estate investment you can make in 2025 is to invest in short let properties. Hands down!

Please bear in mind the keyword that  I used, ‘for cash flow real estate’. 

In real estate investments we have cash flow real estate investments and capital gains real estate investments. If you are not too familiar with them and their major differences, you can check out my earlier article on them here 👉  Investing 101: Capital gains or cash flow. Which strategy should you adopt for your real estate investments?

They are a big topic on their own and I can’t really go into them here. So just go read the article first to understand their differences then come back and continue with this article.

With that said, let’s get back to our topic for today.

Short lets in Lagos is growing at an unprecedented rate. The whooping 200% increase in the price of short lets that I started this article with is proof of that. Let’s compare that to the traditional rent.

On average, traditional rents in Lagos appreciate by 10% – 12% per annum. On the other hand, short let prices have been appreciating by a jaw dropping 88% per annum over the past 3 years. To compare traditional rents and measure it side by side with short lets is equivalent to comparing the speed of a cheetah with that of an elephant.

In case you are wondering which is which in my analogy, Cheetah represents short-let performance while the speed of elephant represents the traditional rent. 

Now when a new real estate investment model like this comes up, most people are wary, so they hold back. Wanting to confirm if it is just a fad or something that is here to stay. 

That’s the smart thing to do but having looked at the short let market critically, I can confidently say that short let is not only here to stay but here to take over.

That’s just the truth of the matter and that’s why I want you to get in early when the taking is still large and not when the market has been over saturated. 

The factors driving the demand for short-let properties will only continue to increase which means that the demand for short let properties will only continue to increase. 

One of the best businesses that you can start is either a food business or a transportation business. Why?

The answer is quite simple, it is because the demand is always there. No matter what, people will  eat. No matter what, people will move around from place to place. 

You have a demand that will never run out, on the other hand it will only increase so whenever you are starting a food business or a transportation business all you have to do is get the basics and fundamentals right and your success is guaranteed because the demand is there.

Well, same thing with short-let. The demand is there and the demand will only continue to increase. Believe it or not, the micro economic situation of Nigeria is looking pretty good right now. Forget what the media, especially  western media, is telling you.

You see, 70% of Nigeria’s population are youths. Not only that, this current Nigeria youth population is the wealthiest Nigeria youth population in her entire history. We have a lot of young people who are making what very successful businessmen make in a year in just a week.

How are they doing this? They are leveraging  different opportunities online to make money for themselves. Be it by creating content for social media, influencing for brands, working for companies in US, Canada remotely amongst others. Whatever it is, they are making good money.

Now these young people, the content creators and online brand influencers often make use of short let apartments and houses for their shoots and video production because it is just more instagrammable and nice looking than whatever it is they have at home.

There are many people in different parts of the country working for companies here in Lagos remotely, perhaps in a month their physical presence at the office is needed only for 3 or 4 days.

Instead of renting houses in Lagos and totally uprooting themselves and moving to Lagos when they are physically needed at their office for just a few days in a month, short-let properties are their go to accommodation whenever they need to be physically available in their offices. 

They just book for the number of days they are needed and afterwards travel back to their place, no issues. 

Even the so called yahoo yahoo boys are now running from hotels because their hunters, the police, have gotten wise to them always lodging in hotels and thus developed a habit of busting randomly into hotels they have identified as a hotspot for these boys. Booking short-let offers them more anonymity and security.

The anonymity, security and homeliness of short-let properties remains its greatest selling points. This is because most short-let properties are always in a well secured estate and neighbourhood.

Eliminating the risk of harassment, assault and other security challenges.

Privacy is a big lure too. I read the other day about a man who said that the reason he loves and books short-let is to spend time with his mistress. Totally safe from any possibility of discovery by his wife. If booking short-let offers this amount of privacy and anonymity to a cheating man, you can see why others seeking similar privacy love it.

The biggest selling point however is the homeliness of short-let. You see, hotels are too formal but when you book a short let property you can do whatever you can do in your own house and more. You can cook, play games and just feel at home. Totally at home.

This is its biggest selling point. It is why most diaspora returnees book short lets instead of lodging in hotels.Therein lies the secret of how the short let real estate market generated ₦21 billion in December of 2024 alone.

There was so much influx of visitors from abroad, both nigerians who were coming home for the  christmas celebrations and even non-nigerians who just came to experience Lagos. That is another big factor pushing demands for short let properties.

Tourism in Lagos is kicking off. In December of last year, there were so many non-nigerians who came into Lagos to experience Lagos night life that social media was on fire. Literally on fire. 

Where scenic beaches, historical locations, and world famous landmarks failed, afrobeats is succeeding in selling Lagos to the world and attracting tourists.

I could go on and on but you already got the point, short-let is not a fad that will soon fade out, it is a market that is still in its infancy and will only get bigger which is why you must get in this 2025.

Now here comes the biggest challenge of most people with short-let. 

You see, it is one thing to rent out your house on an annual basis and just collect your rent every year. You don’t even need to see your tenants, don’t even need to step foot inside that property for years. All that matters is that your rent enters your account every year unfailingly or your tenants will be out of accommodation.

But with short lets, you need to advertise the property to get guests, need to make arrangements for the cleaning, the check in, check out and all those things. It requires more hands-on management. 

Therein lies the challenge of most people with short let. Why work so hard to make money and work even harder taking care of your investments after you have invested the money?

You don’t have to, you see, every challenge has a solution.That short-let requires marketing to get guests, personnel to check in and check out those guests,  cleaners to take care of the space and keep it neat amongst others does not mean that you have to be the one doing them.

There is a property we have in the market now that is so perfect for short-let that over the past 2-3 months I have received so many calls and requests from people, all asking the same question, who will manage this property for me? Will Rose Garden Realty manage this property for me when I buy it?

I  always give them the same answer and I will give you that same answer in this article.

You don’t have to shy away from short lets because you do not have the time nor the staff and personnel to take on the more hands on approach needed to run a successful short let business.

And, no! Rose Garden Realty will not manage your short-let properties for you. We give you the best real estate advisory, portfolio management and brokerage services but we are unable to manage your short-let for you.

However there are different companies that specialise only on managing your short let properties for you. They will handle all aspects of the business for you. Getting guests, checking in and out, cleaning and ensuring that there are no damages to your properties. Everything.

All you have to do is sit back, get your reports of activities on the property  and receive your money in your bank account like clockwork. No long talk.

Don’t let some “property guru” or “real estate expert” convince you that short-let is a fad and will soon phase out. 

Don’t let the more hands on approach discourage nor hold you back. That something needs to be done doesn’t mean that you are the one that will do it yourself. There are companies that  will help you with that.

The most lucrative cash flow investment you can make this year by far is to get into the short let property market, because remember, the Law of real estate says, “Either you own properties and  make money or you rent and are paying those who own properties.”

My part is to give you exclusive money making information, taking the necessary actions and actually making the money is up to you. I have done my part, you should do yours.

Now where is the best booming location in Lagos for short-lets? What type of property is actually the most lucrative for short-lets?

Feel free to get in touch for answers to these questions and to discuss how you can have your short-let up and running before the end of this month.

I Am. Ugochukwu.