When Klaus Schmitz walks into his new London office this September, he brings with him more than three decades of deep institutional real estate experience. He arrives as the newly appointed Chief Investment Officer for Europe at Edmond de Rothschild Real Estate Investment Management (REIM), a move that, at first glance, might seem like yet another executive reshuffle in the European real estate chessboard.
But Schmitz’s appointment is far from routine. It is emblematic of a broader recalibration taking place in the global property investment ecosystem—a shift that carries powerful implications for the Global South, particularly Nigeria, where the gap between capital and construction continues to widen in the race for affordable housing.
As Nigeria prepares for the 2025 edition of the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS), and policymakers debate urgent reforms in land access and housing finance, Schmitz’s cross-border role offers a revealing vantage point on why global capital still hesitates to back large-scale affordable housing projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
This is not just about a European fund expanding its footprint. It’s about who gets funded, who gets ignored, and why the story of affordable housing in Nigeria remains a cautionary tale of missed opportunities, bureaucratic inertia, and under-leveraged potential.
A Veteran Investor in a Shifting Landscape
Klaus Schmitz, a seasoned German financier, is not new to transformative real estate plays. Before joining Edmond de Rothschild REIM, he led investment strategy for the DACH region at Ares Management, one of the world’s most aggressive private equity players in real estate. His resume reads like a roadmap of European and global real estate power centres: senior roles at Starwood Capital Group, N.M. Rothschild & Sons, and PIMCO, along with an executive chairmanship at Peach Property Group, a Swiss-listed real estate company known for special situations and distressed asset strategies.
Now, Schmitz will chair the investment committee at Edmond de Rothschild REIM, overseeing a diverse portfolio spanning logistics, mixed-use developments, residential units, and operational real estate across Europe. He will report directly to co-CEOs Pierre Jacquot and Arnaud Andrieu, joining the executive committee with a clear mandate: scale up.
“This appointment is about vision and velocity,” Jacquot said. “Klaus’s deep investment knowledge, cross-border experience, and entrepreneurial approach will help take our European platform to the next level.”
But as Schmitz prepares to execute this mandate—expanding capital deployment in London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Milan—the absences in the REIM footprint become more striking. There is little mention of Lagos, Nairobi, or Kigali. No Johannesburg, no Accra. And certainly no Abuja.
Which raises the question: if private equity-backed real estate funds are eager to scale, why is Nigeria’s affordable housing market still starved of institutional capital?
The Cost of Underinvestment in Affordable Housing in Nigeria
Nigeria’s housing deficit hovers between 17 and 22 million units, depending on which government official or development economist you ask. Either way, the figures are staggering. Every year, an estimated 900,000 households are added to the population, while fewer than 100,000 formal housing units are delivered.
At the core of the crisis lies a tangled knot of land acquisition challenges, funding bottlenecks, and regulatory opacity. Unlike in Europe—where investment-grade residential projects are secured through layers of legal, financial, and infrastructural predictability—Nigeria’s housing landscape remains defined by risk.
High construction costs, lack of reliable mortgage systems, and difficulty securing titled land make real estate a speculative play rather than a reliable investment. Even when projects get off the ground, demand is often dampened by affordability thresholds far below what most private developers can stomach.
For global investors like Edmond de Rothschild REIM, the risk calculus rarely adds up. Affordable housing, with its razor-thin margins and high upfront infrastructure costs, is rarely an attractive destination for private equity capital. Schmitz’s appointment underscores this reality. His expertise lies in special situations—distressed assets, complex transactions, and opportunistic plays in mature markets. These strategies demand predictability and scale, two elements sorely lacking in Nigeria’s fragmented housing sector.
Capital Flows and Policy Gaps
To understand the disconnect between institutional capital and housing needs in Nigeria, one must examine the policy architecture—or lack thereof—that governs land and housing.
Unlike Europe’s structured planning regimes, Nigeria operates under a mosaic of state-controlled land bureaucracies and federally misaligned housing initiatives. The Land Use Act of 1978, still largely unreformed, vests all land in the state governors, making acquisition a political and logistical minefield. The result? Even the most earnest developers face years of delay securing Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-Os), without which land remains functionally unusable for major financing.
Festus Adebayo, founder of the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) and convener of AIHS, has long campaigned for a total overhaul of the system. “You can’t talk about affordable housing in Nigeria without talking about land reform,” he told REMag. “If we do not decouple land access from politics, no amount of foreign investment will come.”
Adebayo’s warning reflects the growing impatience of local and diaspora developers eager to meet demand. But it also explains why firms like Edmond de Rothschild REIM—despite their appetite for risk in the European sense—remain wary of African frontier markets. The lack of regulatory clarity, title security, and financial structuring mechanisms makes it nearly impossible to price risk accurately.
Lessons from Elsewhere: Africa’s Housing Contrasts
Not all African nations face Nigeria’s challenges. Rwanda, for instance, has earned praise for its digitized land registry, streamlined planning permissions, and robust PPP (public-private partnership) framework. South Africa, while still struggling with its apartheid-era spatial legacy, has managed to integrate a functional mortgage system with a clear urban development plan.
Kenya, with its Big Four Agenda, has made affordable housing a cornerstone of economic policy. Though not without its own hurdles, the government’s partnership with UN-Habitat and global financiers has yielded tangible projects in Nairobi and beyond.
These comparisons matter. They reveal that the problem isn’t Africa per se—it’s Nigeria’s peculiar mix of political inertia and regulatory dysfunction.
Yet Nigeria remains the continent’s most populous nation and arguably its biggest real estate opportunity. If international capital is to flow meaningfully into affordable housing here, something fundamental must change.
The Role of Capital Partners and the AIHS 2025 Horizon
One hope lies in initiatives like the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS), which will return to Abuja in July 2025 with renewed focus. Themed “Financing the Future: From Policy to Homes,” the event is expected to draw investors, regulators, and developers into much-needed conversations about financing mechanisms, REITs, and mortgage reforms.
Schmitz’s style of deal-making—structured, layered, risk-adjusted—could, in theory, find a place in Nigeria if policymakers move swiftly to correct the fundamentals. Housing advocates like HDAN are pushing for the institutionalization of housing cooperatives, securitized land banks, and diaspora housing funds to bridge the trust gap.
Even more radical ideas are gaining traction, including blockchain land registries, green bond financing for mass housing, and AI-assisted planning. These may seem far-fetched in the current Nigerian context, but with the right combination of leadership and legislative will, they could become the cornerstones of a new housing paradigm.
A Global Story with Local Stakes
Schmitz’s rise within Edmond de Rothschild REIM is not just a story of European ambition. It is a mirror reflecting Nigeria’s ongoing exclusion from serious global real estate capital—especially in the affordable housing segment.
As Europe doubles down on ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) commitments, there may yet be a window for African cities to pitch themselves as destinations not just of growth, but of responsible, scalable investment. Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt can still tell compelling stories of urban transformation, provided they are backed by land reforms, credible data, and investment-grade planning.
In the meantime, the contrast remains stark. While Schmitz will be structuring billions in logistics and residential plays across Hamburg and Madrid, Nigeria’s housing developers continue to battle basic hurdles—like power supply, road access, and bureaucratic sign-offs.
The AIHS 2025 may well mark a turning point if it can galvanize action beyond rhetoric. Until then, the gulf between ambition and action, between capital and community, continues to define the tragedy—and the tantalizing potential—of affordable housing in Nigeria.
FAQs
1. Why is affordable housing in Nigeria such a major issue?
Nigeria faces a housing deficit of over 17 million units, caused by poor planning, high construction costs, lack of finance, and broken land administration systems.
2. What is the role of international investors in solving Nigeria’s housing crisis?
While international investors can provide capital and expertise, they are often deterred by legal uncertainties, weak infrastructure, and low ROI in Nigeria’s affordable housing segment.
3. How does Klaus Schmitz’s appointment at Edmond de Rothschild REIM relate to Nigeria?
His appointment reflects the direction of global capital—toward mature, stable markets. Nigeria must reform its housing sector to attract similar strategic investors.
4. What reforms are needed to attract investment into Nigerian housing?
Reforms needed include digitized land registries, mortgage accessibility, streamlined planning, PPP frameworks, and a reliable legal environment.
5. What role does AIHS 2025 play in this conversation?
AIHS 2025 is set to be a critical forum for shaping Nigeria’s housing investment narrative, bringing together stakeholders to align policy with finance.
