‘Govt’s role in housing dev is missing’

There are many houses in the city that are beyond the reach of the ordinary man. What is the way to make houses affordable by the common man? You see, from the way Abuja is structured, from the onset, the cost of land in the city centre is high for the common man to afford […]

There are many houses in the city that are beyond the reach of the ordinary man. What is the way to make houses affordable by the common man?
You see, from the way Abuja is structured, from the onset, the cost of land in the city centre is high for the common man to afford due to the kind of high quality standard infrastructure that is provided there. So even when the land is available, the design of what would be built on the land is such that the buildings must meet high quality construction standards which means the class of buildings and cost of construction will be high.
The way it is supposed to be is that government provides infrastructure in the satellite towns and create enabling environment for the mass housing to exist there where the cost of land is low compared to the city centre. That would have helped in the development of mass housing to meet the demand of the common man.
Another reason you have houses beyond the reach of the ordinary man is that most of the people who invest in construction of these houses are looking for high returns. The area councils are supposed to accommodate mass housing, though government is making effort to providing infrastructure and mass housing, the truth is that developers are not very keen in developing houses in area councils because the return on investment is not very high.
For instance a two-bedroom house will not be less than N5 million to construct and how many low income earners can afford N5 million to own a house in the area councils. Unfortunately, our mortgage system is not also working very well for them to key into to enable them own a house and pay over time.
You also talk of the mortgage refinancing system which has not effectively taken off. It is actually about government creating an enabling environment for the low income earners to be able to own houses they can pay for over time. As it is now, the low income earners cannot outright pay to own a house from their income because developers want return of their investment immediately.

What do you think will encourage mass housing development?
There are lots of factors that will encourage development of mass housing. The first thing to do is for government to develop infrastructure like good road network, electricity and water in areas where mass housing would be situated. But once they are not there, people who want to stay in those areas may need to create their own republic by providing the facilities for themselves.
So if government can provide infrastructure to support the area councils, mass housing would spring up there. Government has to come up with policies that would support the development of low income housing where land can be affordable and infrastructure provided so that low income earners can now pay over a long period of time.
During the sale of government houses under Nasir el-Rufai as FCT Minister, a lot of mortgages were provided through government support and many civil servants who earn low income keyed into it because of the support. So government should encourage such policy.
Private developers should also be supported with seed capital they can draw from and pay over time because they are in the business to make money and nobody would want to invest and wait for 15 to 30 years before making profit.
Another option is for government to support manufacturers of building products and developers who seem to be serious by giving them money to produce building materials and develop mass housing. Such houses will be handed over to the government upon completion, while government would sell/allocate to the low income earners who will gradually pay through deductions from their monthly salary.
What is obtainable now is that we have developers who want to develop and sell immediately. What is missing in the development of housing is the government angle because in most of the estates, it is the developers that are providing all the infrastructure hence houses are not affordable. So it is about government creating the policy and an enabling environment that will support the development of affordable accommodation for the low income earners to be able to afford and own the houses.

Quacks are increasing in the industry on daily basis. How is this affecting the real estate sector?
Quackery is a very unfortunate development in the building industry today. As a professional, I blame it more on the government’s inability to enforce control. But I am happy that now with the change in government, some of the government regulatory agencies seem to have woken up to their responsibilities.  I hope it would also translate to the construction industry.