It is an indisputable fact that Nigeria is currently having a 17 million unit housing deficit, various researches has shown that government is doing very little in reality but much on paper to take on this great housing challenge in this country, and as a matter of fact, there is no readiness nor commitment on the part of the government to provide affordable housing to low income earners and of co
urse private sector (developers) cannot and are not ready to do same as they (developers) are out to make and maximize profit. With these facts staring at our face, coupled with the importance and having a roof on our head, having a house or rather building your own house becomes very important and necessary. The good news is that with this manual your dream of having/ building an affordable house and having a roof over your head is achievable even with your low income! Just few weeks ago, I had an interesting and revealing conversation with a colleague of mine at work and I got a shocking revelation. I live and work in Lagos and I could notice that the Lagos State government is building houses in form of housing schemes in some part of Lagos, but as a matter of fact I have not seen anybody that is not a civil servant or in the civil service that is close to me benefit from these housing scheme, so I asked my colleague (who is senior to me in the industry) what the
formula or modalities for allocating these houses are, he told me that those houses in the housing schemes are basically and mostly allocated to the civil servants (those that works in the public sector either State, Federal or Local), this answer got me thinking and asking this crucial question ‘’ who caters for the masses in the private sector, market women/men transport workers, shop owners, business men/ women etc.?’’ The answer is simple and not farfetched; they build for themselves within the range of there income! Maybe we should have a look at what mortgage looks like in Nigeria. In a normal and developed countries mortgage system/institution plays vital roles in the regard of housing ownership, but in Nigeria reverse is the case as less than one percent of Nigerian masses have access to mortgage facilities and those who has access could not take it due to higher interest rate with double digits unlike the developed world with one digit interest rate spread over a tenor of 20 to 30 years. Because of this great need and challenge we have researched and got an answer to the housing Question! Just like our page and you can get more information! I am ADEDIRAN_ DAVID Quantity surveyor, Project Manager.
