How these young Nigerians turned their class project into a solution that helps with house rents
Founded by three young Nigerians who experienced Lagos’ rent shock firsthand, Ule Homes is challenging Nigeria’s broken rental system by turning lump-sum rent into manageable monthly payments.
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For millions of Nigerians, securing a place to live is less about choice and more about timing, luck, and cash flow. Rent is demanded upfront, often for one or two years, in a country where income is largely earned monthly, and house rent has risen by nearly double digits over the last five years.<br />
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This disconnect has quietly locked many working Nigerians out of decent housing, especially in a city like Lagos, not because they can’t afford rent, but because they can’t afford to pay everything upfront.<br />
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To fill this gap, Ule Homes was born. What started as a group project has evolved into a rent-financing and housing credit startup that aims to revolutionise how Nigerians access housing by converting lump-sum rent into manageable monthly payments, while also quietly building users’ credit histories in the process.<br />
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Founded in 2024 by Chisom Okorie, Omolade Akinwumi, and Azeez Abdulyekeen, who met during a postgraduate programme at the Nigerian University of Technology and Management, Ule Homes officially launched in August 2024. In less than a year, the proptech has disbursed over ₦700 million in rent and housing finance to more than 182 paying customers, primarily across Lagos, Abuja, and parts of Ibadan.<br />
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“We wanted to make housing easier and more bearable for people,” Omolade Akinwumi, Co-founder and CEO of Ule Homes, says.<br />
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The company was selected for the Antlers 2025 programme and had won the Moonshot startup battlefield in October 2025.<br />
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The motivation behind the proptech <br />
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The motivation behind Ule Homes is personal. None of the founders grew up in Lagos, a city whose rent market operates on entirely different rules from much of Nigeria. Coming from places like Jos and Bauchi, where rent is relatively affordable, Lagos presented a harsh reality: rent increases rapidly, requires lump-sum payments, and leaves even salaried workers scrambling.<br />
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“Lagos felt like a new terrain for us. I grew up in Ibadan, Chisom and Azeez grew up in the northern part of Nigeria. Co...
