Housing: ‘Agents make rents expensive for tenants’

Tenants across five major cities in the country have relied on agents to get houses to rent but that the various fees and one-year rent advance demanded are making houses too expensive to rent, a survey has shown. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who spoke at the weekend during the […]

Tenants across five major cities in the country have relied on agents to get houses to rent but that the various fees and one-year rent advance demanded are making houses too expensive to rent, a survey has shown.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who spoke at the weekend during the 46th annual conference of the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors (NIES), said he recently commissioned the survey which indicated that “50%, 35%, 44%, 41% and 33% of people in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan and Kano, respectively, relied on estate agents when looking for a house.”
Fashola said other tenants relied on friends, relatives or searched for houses by themselves, adding that, “a large percentage of them consider the payment of agency, agreement, and caution/damage fees outrageous and they say that these fees put a strain on their resources.”
Represented by his Special Adviser on Housing and Urban Development, Mr Abiodun Oki, the minister said despite the fees, many landlords still sought a year’s rent advance which had added to the plights of tenants and made some properties to be vacant for years.
He advised the surveyors’ association to push landlords to take monthly rent “secured with a guarantee by the employer of the tenant to make payment from the employee’s salary if he found a tenant, in order to ensure there is no rent default.
“I believe your association has a great deal to contribute to the other half of shelter acquisition by making rental accommodation more affordable. I hope that you will rise up to this challenge,” he said.