Nigerian startup Fibre is taking the hassle out of property management by helping people invest in property and then rent it to tenants.
Launched in Lagos in 2016 and venture-backed last year, Fibre partners with landlords and helps them rent out their properties via its online platform.
“For our partner landlords, we offer guaranteed income on their rental property and take control of all tenant relations and maintenance,” co-founder Demilade Ademuson told Disrupt Africa.
Fibre is now expanding its operations to create an end-to-end platform for residential real estate with the launch of its latest product, Secure. The new platform helps property investors make purchases, with Fibre handling the entire conveyance process.
“For buyers that purchase for investment purchases, we will help them list their property on our rental platform and remit rental income to them quarterly. We aim to launch the product in the next few months, however, it is available for early access right now,” said Ademuson.
The reason for Fibre’s existence is to establish a greater level of trust within the real estate market.
“Landlords do not trust that tenants will adhere to their contracts and pay on time. We decided that if we could become a trusted intermediary between landlords and tenants we could solve some of the most pressing issues for both parties,” Ademuson said.
The startup competes against property listing sites and classifieds, but Ademuson said Fibre is different because it focuses on both the discovery aspect of property and convenience of payment.
Since its launched, Fibre has housed around 250 members all over Lagos, and the platform has a swaitlist of almost 5,000 people. It hopes to increase its members four-fold in the next year. It also plans to expand elsewhere in Nigeria, with Abuja being its first target.
“We are also exploring an expansion into Ghana but want to make sure we are covering our bases in Nigeria first. We plan to take Fibre to Abuja, the rest of Nigeria and Ghana by 2019,” said Ademuson.
Fibre, which takes a commission from rental fees, has made over US$1.5million for its partner landlords since its inception.
