The study examines how traditional meanings attributed to housing and the rituals relating to death and burials on private properties are being challenged due to modernisation, familial politics, and contending sets of interests (i.e., valuing property for its economic capital vs. social/cultural capital). The methodology approach is based on in‐depth interviews with 12 respondents from a diverse range of socio‐economic backgrounds. Findings reveal how negotiations and renegotiations of interests affect the physical state and marketability of houses in the Yoruba communities. The findings also sign‐post a fascinating entry point for exploring the way Yoruba are negotiating and navigating the relationship between modernity and tradition. An important implication for marketing and consumption praxes concerns the dynamism in the narratives of ritual behaviour, especially in the non‐Western tradition. The paper contributes to the navigation of relationships between the living and the dead within a Nigerian subculture from a marketing perspective.