One of the country’s listed real estate investment trusts, SFS Real Estate Investment Trust, reported a striking 762 per cent increase in profit to approximately N4.1bn for the 2025 financial year, a performance that is rapidly reframing how investors view property as an asset class.
In a press release on Tuesday, the scheme stated that the 762 per cent profit surge signals a power shift in Nigeria’s real estate market.
The SFS REIT Fund (The Fund) is a close-ended Real Estate Investment Trust Scheme. The Fund is intended as a platform for pooling resources from various classes of investors interested in exploring investment opportunities in the real estate sector.
According to the SFS REIT Fund, in a market dominated by opaque transactions and fragmented ownership structures, Nigeria’s real estate sector may have found its institutional turning point.
“SFS REIT, one of the country’s listed real estate investment trusts, has reported a striking 762 per cent increase in profit to approximately N4.1bn for the 2025 financial year, a performance that is rapidly reframing how investors view property as an asset class,” the report read in part.
It also stated that gross income rose by nearly 30 per cent year-on-year, supported by strong rental collections across a portfolio concentrated in prime urban locations.
“More significantly, the trust recorded substantial fair value gains on its underlying assets, reflecting sustained appreciation in Lagos property markets,” SFS REIT added.
SFS REIT stressed that the report is being interpreted by market participants as evidence that institutional real estate in Nigeria is entering a new phase, one defined by scale, structure, and capital efficiency.
SFS REIT maintained that, for decades, real estate has been Nigeria’s preferred store of wealth.
It, however, lamented that ownership has remained largely informal, illiquid, and difficult to scale.
“The rise of REITs and the performance now being delivered is beginning to change that equation. At the centre of the shift is a simple but powerful idea: real estate, when properly structured, behaves less like a static store of value and more like a financial engine,” it stressed.
The report emphasised that, unlike traditional property ownership, where value is often locked in and difficult to realise, REIT structures convert both income and capital appreciation into measurable, distributable returns.
“In this case, investors are set to benefit from a proposed dividend increase of over 30 per cent, reinforcing the trust’s positioning as a high-yield instrument in a yield-constrained environment,” it stressed.
