Building in Lagos from abroad: how our weekly site reports work

Building a home in Lagos while you live in London, Houston or Toronto has a reputation, and most of it is earned. Money goes out, photos stop coming, and the first honest update arrives when a relative visits the plot. About a third of our clients build from abroad, so we designed our reporting for them first.

Every active project gets a written site report every Friday before 6 pm Lagos time. It comes from your project manager — one named person for the whole build — not from a general inbox.

What is in the report

• Photos taken that week, dated and located, from the same fixed positions each time so you can compare like with like.
• Progress against the agreed programme, by stage, with the hatched bar you will recognise from our project pages.
• What was done this week, what is planned for next week, and anything that is late, with the reason.
• Money: the value of work done, payments received and the next payment due, matched to the contract schedule in Naira.
• Decisions we need from you, with a date we need them by and what happens to the programme if they slip.

Photos that tell the truth

Anyone can send a flattering photo. We take the same views every week, from marked positions on site, and we include the parts of the job that are behind as well as the parts that look good. If a slab is poured, you will see the pour, the cubes taken for testing and, two weeks later, the test results.

When something goes wrong

Things do go wrong on building sites: a supplier delay, a failed inspection, three days of heavy rain. You hear about it in the report that week, not at the end of the month. If a problem affects cost or the handover date, your project manager calls you before the report goes out, so the report is never the first you hear of it.

Visiting, if you can

You never need to fly home for the build to move forward, but many clients like to visit once or twice. We plan those visits around the moments that matter — setting out, the structure topping out, the first fix before walls are closed — and we arrange a walk-round with the architect and the site manager together.

Approvals and paperwork

We handle planning permits, LASBCA stage inspections and certificates on your behalf, and file copies with each report. If you need documents for a bank, a lawyer or a family member holding power of attorney, we send them in the same week.

If you are planning a build from abroad and want to see a real report from a current project, with the client’s permission, ask us when you request a quote.