APPTSUMMIT 2026 Speaker Spotlight: Era Iyayi on Making Rental Housing Investable in Nigeria

Lagos rents have risen by as much as 103% in some neighbourhoods while household incomes have stalled, and most landlords still demand a year or more of rent upfront. Nigeria’s response has largely been framed as an affordability problem. Era Iyayi argues it is an availability problem first: there are simply not enough professionally built, professionally managed rental homes, and until rental housing becomes investable, the patient capital needed to build them will stay away.

His company, Citiliving, is an operating and development platform for structured rental housing — a model that brings together landowners who contribute titled land, investors who fund construction, and an operator that designs, develops and manages the homes for renters. It is early-stage: the company is structuring and capitalising its first 12-unit pilot in Lagos and has signed joint ventures with landowners in six further Lagos locations and two in Abuja. Iyayi is unusually open about what has been harder than expected, including a Maryland project that began as rental housing and has evolved into a for-sale scheme for first-time buyers because the available capital suited that structure better.

On 13 October he joins the panel “Housing Accessibility and New Ownership Models” at APPTSUMMIT 2026, the inaugural Africa PropTech Priority Summit in Lagos. Ahead of the summit, Property News Africa — the event’s Official Digital Media Partner — asked him how the model works, what investors are targeting, and why building rental housing in Nigeria remains difficult but, in his words, solvable. His answers, lightly edited, are below.

In conversation with Era Iyayi

Tell us about Citiliving. What does the company actually do, and where is it today?

Citiliving is an operating and development platform for structured rental housing, working to make rental homes investable for owners and liveable for renters. Our model brings together suitable land, patient capital, thoughtful development and professional property operations.

Operationally, we are still early-stage, but we have structured and are capitalising our first 12-unit pilot in Lagos, and have signed joint ventures with landowners in six other locations in Lagos and two in FCT Abuja.

Our Maryland project was initially planned around rental housing but has evolved into a for-sale project targeted at first-time homebuyers, because the available capital and project economics were better suited to that structure. Progress has been slower and harder than we anticipated, but it has given us a more grounded understanding of what it will take to build rental housing sustainably.

How does the Citiliving structure and business model work in practice?

The structure we are developing is straightforward. The landowner contributes properly titled land rather than selling it, investors provide the development capital, and Citiliving structures and coordinates the development and eventual management of the property.

The landowner receives an agreed share of the completed development or its income. The investor owns an income-generating asset and earns rent with potential capital appreciation. Citiliving earns development and recurring management fees, while the renter receives a thoughtfully designed and professionally managed home.

The model may be asset-light for Citiliving, but housing itself is never capital-free. The capital must come from partners whose interests are protected through proper documentation, governance, reporting and clear exit options.

How does structured rental housing change the deal for renters, and can it support flexible payments?

Structured rental housing that delivers for renters begins from the very beginning, not as an afterthought: from location selection to design, financing and managing homes around the needs of renters, rather than treating rental housing as “low-income housing” or whatever remains unsold. This should produce thoughtfully designed and better-maintained homes, clearer charges, responsive management and a more dependable rental experience.

Monthly, quarterly and yearly payments are all supported. But technology alone cannot create flexible rent; a financing partner must provide the landlord’s required upfront liquidity while the renter repays in smaller instalments. Our goal is to eventually combine verified renter information, responsible rent financing and digital payments.

What returns are investors targeting, and what has been the hardest part of making rental housing investable?

We do not yet have realised returns from a completed Citiliving rental development, but investors in our pilot project are targeting about 8% stabilised net annual rental yield, with long-term capital appreciation providing additional upside.

Our approach is to assess each site based on net rental income after maintenance and other operating costs, and not merely headline gross yield. We choose locations that offer a better balance for investors and property owners, and the hardest part is aligning what renters can afford, what construction actually costs and what return investors require.

Our Maryland experience showed us that a good location and attractive design are not enough; the capital structure must also support the intended rental outcome.

Where does technology fit, and what have you learned from studying different cities?

Technology should make good housing operations more transparent and scalable for owners, renters and even government. It can give governments and investors better insight into how much housing exists, where the shortages are and what mix of homes people actually need. At the property level, it can support verification, demand analysis, applications, rent collection, maintenance tracking and performance reporting.

We have studied and engaged the rental markets in Lagos, Abuja, Nairobi and Accra, but our immediate focus is Lagos and Abuja. Nairobi and Accra remain future markets. One important lesson is that housing models cannot simply be copied from one city and pasted into another. Even between Lagos and Abuja, local regulations, financing systems, rental culture and payment behaviour differ, and this difference shapes both the technology and the operating model to adopt.

What will you be covering at APPTSUMMIT 2026, and what should attendees take away?

I will be speaking on the panel “Housing Accessibility and New Ownership Models: Rent Financing, Fractional Ownership, Co-Ownership and Alternative Housing Models.”

My central argument is that the housing crisis is first an availability problem before it is an affordability problem. Fixing availability requires structure, patient capital, realistic land structures and projects whose numbers work for renters and investors.

I hope attendees leave with a clearer understanding that the housing crisis can be fixed, but we have to go beyond talk and collaborate to do the hard work.

At a glance: Era Iyayi and Citiliving

About Era Iyayi

Era Iyayi is the Co-founder and CEO of Citiliving, a PropTech company working to address the rental housing crisis in Africa’s congested cities through investable and liveable homes. With over a decade of experience across engineering, consulting, hospitality and real estate, he is building partnerships with landowners, investors and development professionals to create structured rental homes that deliver steady returns to owners and better homes to renters. He believes the housing crisis is first an availability problem before it is an affordability problem — and that only when rental housing becomes investable can Africa unlock the patient capital required to increase supply and create homes people want to live in.

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