The question of an affordable housing provision exists as one of the greatest challenges facing the Nigerian real estate sector. For many disadvantaged, low and middle-income households, homeownership is usually out of reach.
The benefit of affordable housing is in its ability to enable families to have the ample opportunity to reside in locations close to their place of work, education and affordable means of transportations.
The good news is that a new housing scheme launched recently by a firm and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) places these individuals as a priority towards its drive to tackle the housing deficit.
The new scheme aims to ease the process of owning homes for all Nigerians by creating the capacity needed for homeownership in choice locations across the country with minimal financial burden.
What this means is that by providing accessible financing for affordable housing, the scheme will help bridge the housing deficit in the country and also make homeownership a dream come through.
“The target of this initiative is to address prospective home buyers’ concerns which impede real estate investment in Nigeria,” Morola Babalola, the initiator of the Affordable Housing Cooperative, explained at the launch of the scheme in Lagos.
She noted that despite the increase in private sector investments in the Nigerian real estate industry, the country’s housing deficit keeps getting worse.
According to Babalola, the chief executive officer, of Townsend Property Investment Limited “Housing deficit in Nigeria remains intractable despite initiatives by federal and state governments,” she noted, blaming the persisting deficit on the mismatch between the desired homes and what is available for low income and informal sector individuals.
Gbenga Ashafa, managing director of Federal Housing Authority (FHA), who was represented by Hayatudden Atiku Awwal, managing director, FHA Mortgage Bank Limited, assures participants that they are committed to delivering affordable housing.
“In the context of the National Housing Fund (NHF), which is being managed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), the cap for affordability is N15 million,” he disclosed, noting that he was delighted to be among this pioneer affordable housing delivery through cooperatives.
He urged all Nigerians to key into the good work.
Ayodeji Amodu, senior special assistant to the governor of Lagos State on housing, noted that with the huge housing deficit in the state, the state government was still resolute on creating more innovative ways for supplying decent and affordable homes to the residents.
He noted further that given the state’s limited landmass and the increased pressure on available land for housing and other development activities, the time was ripe for thinking outside the box.
“Over time, the state government may need to evolve an inclusive strategy through which owners of old homesteads would partner with the government in terms of releasing old properties to the government for vertical development of blocks of flats”.
He reasoned that, with the state government’s THEMES Agenda, which the thrust is to transform the state into a 21st-century economy that is comparable to others in the world, the housing development policies will be more robust and yet domesticated to the local environment.
“The design of our new homes will be directed towards a more optimized usage of land which is very scarce in the state. Vertical buildings which will house more people will replace the lateral ones”, Amodu assured.
