Nigerian Property Developers Urged to Focus On Providing Affordable Housing

Property developers across the country have been urged to focus more on providing affordable housing for low and middle-income earners so as to reduce the challenge of inadequate homes.

This call was made by Ayo Ojo-Omoniyi, Group Executive Secretary of real estate development company, Adron Homes during a forum held recently.

According to Ojo-Omoniyi, the delivery of affordable homes will go a long way in reducing the huge housing deficit put at over 17 million. He also called on the government and real estate managers to make the land acquisition process seamless for all income earners in the society.

Ojo-Omoniyi made known that developers faced some issues that needed to be addressed by the government. The issue he emphasized upon is the delay in perfection of land title documents, which he observed was affecting fast delivery of housing projects.

He said developers still face this issue which is why the government needs to tackle it. The Executive secretary however advised housing developers to ensure they buy land legally though the right channel and in line with the state’s regulations.

Ojo-Omoniyi said; “Land acquisition from the government is a challenge. There was a meeting we had with the Lagos State Government; we were told that they have over 7,000 Certificates of Occupancy pending to be signed by the government.

“They inherited this application from the previous regimes. It takes time because it’s the asset of the state government, they take time to sign those documents and check that there are no fraudulent transactions on those lands before signing”,

“We are in close collaboration with the ministry of lands and housing, and the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Agency. We are able to checkmate many of these challenges so that for every land you buy, you can be rest assured that there are no issues on the land.” He added.

Recall that Propertydome had looked at policies put in place in providing affordable housing in Nigeria, that is, the government schemes set up to help low and middle income earners get adequate homes.

The Federal Government had started with the Urban renewal scheme from 1951 down to 1991 where the National Housing Policy (NHP) was formulated.

Nigeria has indeed seen various housing schemes set up by the government for the purpose of providing affordable housing for low and middle-income earners in the country. The National Housing Fund was set up in 1992 with the aim of making every Nigerian who then earned up to N3,000 per month to contribute 2.5% of his or her monthly salary.

This fund was to be managed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria so that workers who are contributors to the fund can source money from the fund through PMIs to develop individual houses.

A few months ago, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approved over US$ 517 million as a mortgage finance facility towards the construction of 300,000 homes in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. This was approved as part of the program on affordable housing in Nigeria under the Economic Sustainability Plan 2020.

However, reports have made known that these providing affordable housing policies have not been as successful as they should, due to poor management and the segmented target of only low-income earners across the country. The reports also stated that although the National Housing Fund helps people with home buying via mortgage at an affordable interest rate. It also allows you to purchase a house that is commensurate with your income.

This is one of the reasons some people do not bother going for it. Many ‘middle class’ earners don’t find this option very attractive because the home they would probably buy is in the outskirts of Lagos or in some remote area since they give funds only according to how much you earn.

[READ MORE: How Can You Get Affordable Housing In Nigeria?]