The figure appears in the Africa REIT Report from Fortren & Company, which benchmarks listed REIT activity across nine African markets. The study estimates Africa’s total REIT market value at $30 billion, with listed market capitalisation of about $21 billion and 49 operational REITs on the continent.
South Africa accounts for the vast majority of that value, holding more than $27 billion or roughly 92% of the continent’s REIT market, the report says. Fortren & Company attributes South Africa’s lead to deeper capital markets, stronger institutional investor presence, greater liquidity and more developed regulatory and corporate governance frameworks.
Nigeria established its REIT framework in 2008, but the market has remained small. The current roster includes UPDC REIT, SFS REIT and UHREIT as the earlier entrants, with Chapel Hill Denham NREIT and the MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund joining in 2025.
Official mutual fund records dated December 24, 2025, show REITs in Nigeria held a combined net asset value of ₦483.06 billion, equal to 6.30% of the country’s ₦7.67 trillion mutual fund industry. Those totals underline a sector concentrated in a few large funds, while smaller REITs largely compete on yield rather than scale.
The Fortren report highlights institutional participation as a key determinant of market development. In frontier markets such as Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe, private wealthy investors remain an important source of capital, a pattern that limits the supply of institutional-grade assets available to public vehicles.
Akinsomi said the market needs greater pension fund involvement to draw durable, long-term capital, and that REIT managers should broaden into asset classes with steadier cash flows. He suggested healthcare facilities, student housing and logistics as sectors that could provide more predictable returns and help expand listed real estate supply.
Absent deeper institutional engagement and a shift toward asset classes that attract long-duration investors, Nigeria’s REIT market is likely to remain a small segment of Africa’s listed real estate landscape. The immediate policy and commercial test is whether pension funds and other institutional investors will increase allocations to listed real estate, and whether managers will move to acquire and package institutional-grade properties for the market.
