“Unfurnished” in Lagos can mean bare walls and a light fitting. Before you budget for a sofa, budget for the things that make a flat work at all.

What a flat usually comes with, and what it may not

Ask before you pay the advance, and get the answers into the tenancy agreement:

  • Kitchen cabinets and a sink — not always
  • Wardrobes — often not
  • A prepaid electricity meter in your name or the flat’s — essential; a shared meter is a monthly argument
  • Water: a borehole, an overhead tank and a pump, or nothing
  • Air conditioning points and who pays for installation
  • Burglar-proof bars on the windows and a secure door

Tenancy agreements

The Lagos essentials

These come before furniture, because the flat is hard to live in without them:

  • Backup power. A generator, an inverter with batteries, or solar panels with an inverter. An inverter is quiet and cheap to run but needs grid power or sun to recharge; a generator runs on petrol you have to buy. Electricity in Lagos
  • A voltage stabiliser or surge protection for anything expensive. The grid surges, and surges kill fridges and televisions.
  • Water storage and a pump, if the building’s supply is uncertain. Water in Lagos
  • Mosquito nets on the windows, and a net over the bed. Malaria

Where to buy

  • Carpenters build wardrobes, beds and cabinets to measure, often for less than shop furniture, from wood you can see. Agree the design, the wood and the price in writing, pay in stages, and inspect before the final payment. Finding a tradesperson
  • Furniture showrooms on the mainland and the Island, for ready-made pieces.
  • Markets for appliances and electricals — Alaba and the Trade Fair complex in Ojo — at lower prices with more care needed. Lagos markets
  • People leaving Lagos sell whole households. Expatriate and estate groups online are full of them.

Buying appliances

Check the warranty is honoured in Nigeria, buy from a dealer who will still be there next year, and test before you take it home. Ask for delivery and installation in the price; carrying a fridge through Lagos traffic is its own project.

Buying a phone or laptop Finding a place in Lagos