Estate developer wants Land Use Act reviewed

A real estate developer, Dr. Victor C. Onukwugha, has called on the federal government to review the Land Use Act and other laws hindering the provision of housing in the country in order to ensure full participation of real estate developers. Onukwugha, the Executive Chairman of Bauhaus International Limited, stated this in an interview with […]

A real estate developer, Dr. Victor C. Onukwugha, has called on the federal government to review the Land Use Act and other laws hindering the provision of housing in the country in order to ensure full participation of real estate developers.
Onukwugha, the Executive Chairman of Bauhaus International Limited, stated this in an interview with our reporter, saying  Land Use Act hindered qualitative mortgage financing and made  it difficult for a developer to acquire land without passing through undue bureaucracy.
“We need to revisit laws that are against the provision of housing, for instance the Land Use Act has to be revisited, foreclosure laws and all those laws that have to do with land title.  Once this is done, it would create good funding for construction loan and mortgage loan that would drive the building construction and this has to be addressed through real estate and private developers partnership.
“What I am saying is  that all the impediments that slow down the process of land procurement and  titling should be revisited,” he said.
He added that once government reviewed the Land Use Act, foreclosure law and titling processes,  it would make international  financing institutions interested in the country’s mortgage system thereby making provision of housing less cumbersome.
Victor stressed that once this was done, funding which has been a major problem in the provision of affordable housing in the country would be addressed.
Victor advocated a social housing programme where government would  concentrate on providing social housing through affordable social programmes that would be enacted by the government and making them available to the low income strata while the real estate developers would concentrate on providing affordable housing for the medium and upper income strata.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint an expert to head ministry of housing and urban development, saying it would not augur for the sector to appoint a politician.