Real Estate Sector Contracts by 17.8$ in the Second Quarter -NBS

Economic uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the nation’s real estate sector by 17.8 percent in the second quarter, according to the latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The bureau disclosed this in its Gross Domestic Product report released for the quarter.

The report stated that “In nominal terms, real estate services in the second quarter of 2020 declined by 17.18 per cent per cent, or 19.27 per cent points lower than the growth rate reported for the same period in 2019 and lower by 18.31 per cent points compared to the preceding quarter.”

On a quarterly basis, the real estate sector contracted by 1.24 percent in nominal terms.

Accordingly, the sector contributed 5.23 percent to nominal GDP in the second quarter of 2020, down from the 6.32 percent contributed in the same quarter of 2019 but the same as the preceding quarter.

The NBS also noted that the real GDP of the real estate sector fell by 21.99 percent in the second quarter of 2020, down from 18.15 percent and 17.24 percent growth recorded in Q2 2019 and Q1 2020, respectively.

On a quarterly basis, real GDP declined by 2.71 percent in the period under review.

The real estate sector contribution to real GDP declined from 6.43 percent it recorded in the corresponding period of 2019 to 5.30 percent in Q2 2020.

Nigeria’s GDP contracted by 6.10 percent year-on-year in a real term in the second quarter of 2020 following a plunge in economic activities due to COVID-19 lockdown.