{Investors scramble for land in Maiduguri, in Borno state, where prices have more than doubled in recent years.}<\/p>\n
Property investors in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri are benefiting from a rise in real-estate prices following the retreat of Boko Haram fighters.<\/p>\n
Maiduguri is the largest city in Borno state, once a stronghold of the fighters and a frequent target for its suicide bombers.<\/p>\n
The group claims to be fighting against Western influence and is thought to have killed about 15,000 people and driven more than two million from their homes during its six-year insurgency. <\/p>\n
Since the Nigerian military began a wide-ranging military operation against Boko Haram, many of Maiduguri’s residents that had fled are on their way back home.<\/p>\n
They had sold land and property to escape the armed group’s advance but their return is forcing prices to go up.<\/p>\n
The influx has also led to a rise in property building, and under-construction developments are visible across the city.<\/p>\n
Bumper profit<\/p>\n
Many of those cashing in now had bought land and property from fleeing residents cheaply when Boko Haram’s violence was at a peak.<\/p>\n
In some cases, property owners are now making as much 500 percent profit.<\/p>\n
“I made 300 too 500 percent profit on some of the houses I bought, but others didn’t yield as much … This area in particular is hot; prices will improve or remain steady,” said Modu Mala, who bought dozens of homes from desperate owners.<\/p>\n
Modu and others are now re-investing their money in low-cost houses for the estimated 1.5 million returnees, many of whom are struggling to house themselves.<\/p>\n
Abdullah Kyari is one such example, having fled the city two years ago with his family to escape the fighters.<\/p>\n
“At first, we thought the whole city will fall to the fighters, that’s why I sold my house and left,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I now want my house back but the current owner is refusing to sell it even at twice the price I sold it to him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Investors scramble for land in Maiduguri, in Borno state, where prices have more than doubled in recent years.} Property investors in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri are benefiting from a rise in real-estate prices following the retreat of Boko Haram fighters. Maiduguri is the largest city in Borno state, once a stronghold of the fighters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25063"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25063"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}