Economy
STAKEHOLDERS in housing sector have advocated for adoption of the Public Private Partnership(PPP), alternate building materials and improved Mortgage system to tackle the housing deficit.
The stakeholders made the remark in a survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.
They said that eschewal of politics and involvement of a clear housing policy would also tackle the housing deficit and estate abandonment.
Speaking in Port Harcourt, Rivers, a real estate expert, My-ACE China urged government to use the PPP, instead of private developers, to tackle the deficit, adding that the partnership should be devoid of political bias.
China, the Chief Executive Officer, Construction and Housing Mayor Ltd, said that the partnership should focus on the area of free land allocations to real estate developers with proven track records.
He also said that the state government should also provide a percentage of funds as a take-off grant to assist developers actualise low cost housing projects.
China said that at the realisation of the project, government would buy off some reasonable units of the houses for its low income workforce to boost the sector.
According to him, this partnership will in turn enable developers subsidise the cost on housing by deducting the cost of the land.
China said that the ongoing 20,000 greater town city project by Rivers government was built on such model and urged other states to key into it to enhance housing sufficiency.
He called for more scientific research on alternative housing that would not rely heavily on imported materials like steel or cement.
”Our indigenous materials like straw and clay should be modernized for functional houses.
”Also there should be a revolutionalised mortgage system in the country to enable the informal sector key in.
‘’Government should ensure seamless collaboration with private developers to enable them access accrued funds for housing development,” he said.
He stated that the issue of unoccupied houses in parts of the country had very little to do with price but more on intentions.
China explained that every developer targeted the market, and as such. price could only slow down occupation of the property but not outright abandonment.
According to him, although it’s rear to find unoccupied houses because of the high demand for housing, several factors can lead to some houses being unoccupied for a long time.
He listed some of the factors to include money laundering in a case where induviduals who are not industry players build houses to hide their illegally acquired funds.
Others include court litigations, resulting in sealing of properties by authorities, and with ‘’country’s delayed justice system, the affected properties end up unoccupied pending legal processes.’’
China also said that some of the unoccupied houses might be proceeds of crime which were seized by the law enforcement agencies who failed to either auctioned, reassigned or use them.
In the same vain, Mr Solomon Attah, a civil servant, attributed unoccupied houses across the state to political bias and project abandonment.
According to him, former Gov. Peter Odili of Rivers, during his tenure, initiated a housing project, tagged, ‘One hundred unit housing,’ across the local government areas but was abandoned when his administration ended.
”Gov. Rotimi Amaechi also floated a robust housing reform; today, all we see are abandoned high-rise buildings and equipment that are fast decaying at the Aboloma Estate.
”Until government begins to seperate housing from politics, the issue of unoccupied and uncompleted government-funded houses will not end,” he said.
Speaking also, Mrs Edna Timothy, a real estate property agent, said that some state government-owned estates had since be allotted to individuals especially senior civil servants.
She sited the Iriebe Housing Estate, old federal government housing estate in Woji and D-line area of Port Harcourt and others being occupied.
In Akwa Ibom, An Uyo based legal practitioner, Mr Eyibio Okon, said that poor housing policy in the state was a hindrance to the development of the sector.
He added that the poor housing policy in Nigeria, especially in Akwa Ibom, hindered people from occupying Federal Government’s housing estate in the state.
Okon said that due to lack of clear-cut policy, anybody who becomes a governor could choose to build a housing estate in his village.
He called for a policy that would allow an individual to live in the state or federal government’s housing.
He observed that some Local Government workers live in the city and called for staff quarters in LG councils for the staff.
Okon added that many housing estate were unoccupied for years due to rent hike in the state.
He alleged that some politicians built estates near their homes in government’s name, with the aim of transforming them later into their private property.
Okon, who is also the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) Secretary, Akwa Ibom Chapter, urged the government to draw policy that would encourage housing estate in the country.
“Those developers should be encouraged by allowing them to build housing estate in designated places for sell,” Okon said.
He also urged the government to build a low cost housing estate and allocate to civil servants especially those that still have 10 to 11 years in service.
He added that in doing so, small money would be deducted from their salaries until they finished paying for the cost of the house to claim them.
Okon, however, advised the FG to award the housing estate contract to the real estate developers and not to politicians.
Also speaking, Mr Aniefiok Udonquak, a landlord, supported building more houses for low income earners to address the housing deficit in the country.
Udonquak, who is a veteran journalist, said that grants and loans should be given to people, especially civil servants to build their own houses before retirement.
He said that property mortgage system, specifically for civil servants, should be put in place to address housing needs of the citizens.
He observed that the cost of building a house was expensive for an average salary earners in the country and urged governments to institute a genuine property mortgage system.
Udonquak said that the system would assist the civil servants to build or own a house before retirement.
He also called for the reduction of high cost of building materials in the country to enable an average Nigerians to afford building a house of his own.
According to him, as it is today, it is difficult for an average civil servant to build a house, except he or she has access to stolen funds.
An official of the Federal Ministry of Housing in Abak road, who declined to have his name mentioned, said that all the federal housing units in the state were fully occupied.
According to him, one bedroom unit is sold for N9 million, two bedroom goes for N13 million, while three bedroom unit is N19 million.
“Let me tell you, all the allocations are done in Abuja; our own is just to go and show the place, allocation is not done in Uyo.
“The entire federal housing units in Akwa Ibom have been occupied mostly by politicians and top businessmen, except the one along Airport Road which is under construction and not yet allocated,” he said.
Mr Ufot Akpabio, an architect and town planner, said that the present economy had created no room for individual savings, adding that the situation is made worst due to high cost of building materials.
He said that to access land was difficult and expensive for an average Nigerians, advising government to stop paying lip service to housing needs of the people.
Akpabio added that addressing housing deficit, governments should make access to Mortgage institutions less cumbersome and realistic, calling for a single-digit Interest rates to loans and mortgage and not the unfavourable double digit interest
He called on governments to consider proper physical planning and provision of other basic infrastructure such as road, water and electricity to stimulate housing development.
He, however, called for a research to determine the actual housing stock and needs of the people in the state and country.
In Calabar, Cross River, Mr Francis Oyo-Ita, a Fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Architects said that Nigeria should harness its indigenous enormous building materials and de-emphasise import.
He said these available natural resources such as limestone, iron ore, timber among others, were supported by research results from different institutes that are producing many high quality local solutions.
According to him, unfortunately, there are no political will to backup these research institute whose research results end up in the shelves of these Nigerian Research institutes.
“Our problem is not about population growth but for government to first of all recognized that there is a habitable building shortage in Nigeria and declare a state of a emergency in this sector.
“Once this is done and the government starts looking at the housing problem based on the available local resources we have, we are on the path to solving the problem,” he said.
He added that Nigeria needed a political will to declare a state of emergency on the housing sector and patronage of research solutions from local research institutes which emphasises local content. (NAN)
2nd February, 2025.
C.E.
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