Real estate entrepreneur and Founder of Bella Ville Realty Ltd, Mabel Akpan>, has urged property investors to look beyond surface-level rental income when evaluating investment performance, warning that a property can generate consistent monthly rent and still be poorly managed from a strategic investment perspective. In her recent advisory commentary, she explained that one of the most persistent mistakes among property owners is the assumption that Property Management, Facilities Management, and Estate Management perform the same function. According to her, these are three distinct operational layers that collectively determine whether a property is merely generating income or truly appreciating in value over time.
She explained that Property Management operates at the operational or tenant-facing level of property investment performance. This layer is primarily concerned with the day-to-day administration of the property, including tenant relations, rent collection, lease enforcement, occupancy stability, and prompt resolution of tenant complaints or service disruptions. While this function is essential for maintaining steady cash flow, she noted that many investors mistakenly treat it as the highest level of asset oversight when in reality it represents only one component of a broader investment strategy. Without strong operational management, rental income may become inconsistent, tenant turnover may increase, and the overall reputation of the property as a desirable place to live or conduct business can gradually decline.
Facilities Management, she added, represents the structural and technical health layer of the property. This involves maintaining all physical and mechanical systems that allow the building to function safely and efficiently. These include electrical installations, water and plumbing networks, elevator and safety systems, fire prevention infrastructure, waste management systems, and security technology. She emphasized that facilities management is directly linked to asset preservation. When this layer is neglected, properties may still generate rent in the short term, but long-term structural damage, safety risks, and expensive emergency repairs often erode investment value. In many cases, she said, investors focus too heavily on income generation without allocating sufficient resources toward maintaining the physical integrity of the asset, which ultimately reduces the property’s lifespan and market attractiveness.
At the highest level is Estate Management, which Akpan described as the strategic investment intelligence layer of real estate ownership. Estate management looks at property as a wealth creation instrument rather than just a physical structure that generates monthly income. This level involves strategic valuation positioning, regulatory compliance with government planning and land use policies, long-term development planning, portfolio diversification decisions, and lease structuring strategies designed to maximize capital growth over time. She explained that sophisticated investors often focus on this level because it determines whether a property will simply generate cash flow or will experience sustained appreciation in capital value across market cycles.
Akpan further warned that when these three management layers are merged into a single operational structure, investors often experience hidden inefficiencies. Strategic planning is usually sacrificed for short-term operational tasks, technical faults and infrastructural deterioration may go unnoticed until they become expensive problems, and opportunities to improve property value through redevelopment, repositioning, or regulatory optimization are often missed. She stressed that underperforming real estate assets are rarely the result of low rental demand alone but are often caused by weak asset governance structures and poor long-term planning.
She concluded that the most sophisticated property investors are not primarily concerned with who is managing their property, but rather with the level of management structure guiding the asset. According to her, understanding these distinctions is critical for investors who want to build sustainable wealth through real estate rather than simply generate short-term rental income. Industry analysts continue to emphasize that as Nigeria’s real estate sector becomes more competitive and institutionalized, professional asset management frameworks will play an increasingly important role in determining investment success, portfolio resilience, and long-term property market growth.
