Some real estate experts have said that the future growth of the local industry will depend on the health of the international financial system.

In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday, the experts said that future availabity of credit lines to local developers would depend on the situation in the international financial system.

They said that most lines of credit to the local sector come in through foreign partners and that the lines of credit had thinned down since the global financial crisis started.

Chief Charles Adebiyi, a former President of the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), said the industry enjoyed a boom in the past through efforts of Nigerians resident abroad.

"You know that the industry has enjoyed boom due to the participation of Nigerians resident abroad in trying to acquire property.

"But since the global financial crisis activities in that regard have slowed down and investors are not forthcoming.

"I am afraid that the industry will slow down beyond expectations in 2009, if nothing is done worldwide to check the crisis," he said.

Adebiyi said future developments in the local industry would depend on global developments.

Mr. Akin Olawore, also a former Chairman of the Lagos Chapter of NIESV, said that effective demandfor houses had dropped since it was only foreignplayers that made mortgages available in the banks.

"These mortgages were available for purchasing property within the country. So what you find is that with the global financial melt down, some of the credit lines are being cut-off.

"This means that effective demand has dropped,"he said. Chief Emeka Onuorah, current President of NIESV, expressed similar sentiment, saying that the growth of the industry in 2009 would depend on the condition of the global economy.

"We hope that the financial melt down that is happening in America and Europe and which we heard has reached Asia, will not come to Nigeria," he said.

According to him, once the financial meltdown does not extend to Nigeria, the industry will grow as it has done in the last two years. Onuorah said that although the rate of appreciation of property in Lagos, Abuja and some other parts of the country had slowed down, it had not shown signs of depreciation. (NAN).