real property

"So if I sell you my generator when I move out, that's part of the house sale?" Uche asked her brother, who had just bought the flat. "No," he laughed, "the generator can walk. The land and the building, that's what stays forever. That's the real property. Your generator is just... property."

That conversation captures the whole idea. Real property is land itself, plus anything fixed permanently to it: the building, the borehole, the fitted kitchen cabinets, the fence wall. It is different from personal property, which is anything you can pack into a lorry and take with you, like furniture, curtains, or that generator.

In Lagos, when someone buys a plot in Ajah and builds a duplex on it, the land and the duplex together become real property. The rights attached matter too: the right to sell it, lease it, build on it further, or pass it to your children. Those rights travel with the land, which is why a proper title deed matters so much when Nigerians buy land, since it proves those rights actually belong to you.

For a Nigerian in London sending money home to complete a building project in Enugu, it helps to remember that what they are funding is real property, an asset tied permanently to a location, not something that can be moved or hidden if a dispute arises. That permanence is exactly why real property disputes in Nigeria can drag on for years, and why family land quarrels are so common. Nobody is fighting over furniture. They are fighting over something that cannot be carried away.

Banks care about this distinction too. When you apply for a mortgage, the bank is really lending against the real property, the land and building, not against your television or your car.