Published On: Wed, Oct 28th, 2015 , Much ado about high housing rent fee in Abuja

Published On: Wed, Oct 28th, 2015
Much ado about high housing rent fee in Abuja

Pinnacle-estateBy Mashe Umaru Gwamna, Agi Victor and Zakariyya Khadijah
Abuja has experienced the influx of peoples in the city and satellites towns like Karu, Gwagwalada, Lugbe, Kuje, Kubwa, Maraba,Bwari  and so on,  these   population are yearning for  a proper and decent accommodative housing  for both civil servant and other citizens.
   For low income owners these have become a immense challenged for them to handle.
  Worldwide, housing, apart from providing shelter depicts people’s culture and provides ample evidence of the level of development of the society.
  The need for qualitative and affordable housing cannot be over emphasised, especially in the developing world with its high rate of rural –urban migration and its attendant challenges.
 The Federal government of Nigeria in 1991 promulgated the housing policy with the view to provide the much needed antidote to the housing problem of the nation.
But it was not successful, thus leaving a large percentage of the citizenry still earnestly yearning for a befitting home.
  Since government could not meet the yearning of its citizenry due to financial and other sundry issues, some experienced key players in the development field and other wealthy citizen’s tend to   bridge in to the yearning gap to rescue the nation by building houses for other citizens to occupy.
    However, Peoples Daily investigation revealed that there is no standard price or monitoring body to look in to the affairs of housing rent in Abuja as residents and civil servants keep lamenting the worrisome condition.
 According to Dauda Mohammad who resident in Mpape said Accommodation in Abuja is much cost, for one to have  a very  good  location inside the  city center   the prices varies as the process because you look for an agent an d one still pays agency fee, and it still depends on the location one wants to resides. For some the price range from 10m, 1m, and for self con, you fit get 400 ,000to 500;000 thousand every property owner tends to put  the  high housing  rate  because the  properties is theirs ,they want to collect  what they  have  spend ,while building those estates or housing  they want to gain profit out  of their expenditures .
He emphasised that why do we sees many unoccupied houses in Abuja, it all drawn down to the issue of high fee and Nigerians can afford it, because of that I stay in one room at Mpape with four brothers, even doe still in those outskates of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) housing is not still afford that is why we are living far from the town, for some depending on the area in which one wants to stay for some it ranges from 20,000, 150, 200 and above.
People usually spend money daily on transport to the town even only housing prices can be monitor and asking all those property owners to pay taxes on those unoccupied houses it will go a long way in reducing the high price.
   Mohammad added that, I hope this present administration do something about it and make life easy for us. We hope that part of the change we voted for would include making accommodation affordable for us poor people and housing inexpensive too.
 Mr Suleiman   Kabriu a resident of Kuje lamented that accommodation in Abuja is very costly. But it all depends on the area you are staying.
Like Kuje where I stayed, a self contain goes for 200,000 -300,000, in some places, a two bedroom flat goes for 500,000 -750,000.
 It all depends where your income can afford, because there are place where you can also see accommodation between 80,000 -120,000 for a single room.
   “I urged the present administration and the new to be FCT Minister to do something about this unaffordable housing rate in the FCT, because citizens are suffering, government have a long way to go in bridge the gap of massive afford housing for low income earns  in the FCT .
   Similarly, Mr. Dayo Sobowale Well, Abuja generally is not for poor people, Accommodation is pretty high. Except for villages which were not affected by El-rufai demolition exercise, it will be difficult for ome of us to live in this city.
 In Lugbe where I stay, there is obviously class distinction when it comes to accommodation; there are those who stayed in Federal Housing which is by no means affordable for the poor, the same goes for the emerging estates around the area. But for those living opposite federal housing, by car wash and environs, accommodation is relatively cheap, as one room can go for as low as 50, 000 – 80,000 for a room, while self-contain is around 120,000 for one year.
    For Mr Subero a tenant   at Duste   expressed his view that for the politicians it is ok, but for the common man, it is too high especially when you want to stay in a nice area. The idea now is for
private individuals to build estates around the FCT.
As much as this idea is good, the capitalist motive of these private firms make them too high for ordinary people to buy or even rent these  houses.
I there implore the present administration to build more satellite towns around the FCT, at affordable rate to cater for the increasing population of the city.
  “I stayed in Apo village and the environment is really not conducive. On a rainy day, it is like hell for us because the conditions of the road there is really messy.
      But the fact remains that, with my petty trade, I can only afford house in this part of Abuja. The government who should come to our aid is not really helping matters, as its agency is less concern with how people survive in the country.
  I wish I can live in the likes of Asokoro, Maitama and those other revered areas in Abuja, where rents goes for over two million for a  year, but my income as an hotelier cannot afford me those luxury areas “, Peter O said.
Mrs. Natasha Ijim a resident at Wuse 2 emphasised that said that this issue of affordable boils down to the land use act of 1978 that all vest lands in that lands are for the government and does not  allow
private  ownership of land by individuals and cooperation .
So before building anything or acquiring any land, indigence’s in the FCT cannot locate land without prior to government approval.
 She said that is why some stakeholders’ in housing sector have faulted the act, citing amongst other reasons of the delay in creating and making land accessible to Nigerians.
     If lands are accessible citizens no matter how small the piece of land is   a low income earner will be able to have a conducive affordable housing for all.
  An Estate developer, Mr. Ola Adebayo, urged the FCT Administration and the area councils of the FCT to allocate lands to genuine estate developers who are willing to build affordable houses.
  In his response, the Marketing Executive, Netconstruct, Mr Benjamin Onuaku, an estate developer in Abuja, insisted that the housing deficit had persisted because developers had no access to affordable ands.
He said cumbersome mortgage loan processes had not been favourable to workers who were interested in buying houses.
“The experience has been that when civil servants indicate interest to buy houses, the long period it takes to secure mortgage loans denies them the opportunity of buying such houses.
“When people who have available cash come to buy the same houses, they are sold to them immediately because the developers have to dispose of the houses,’’ he said.
 According to him, a clause in the mortgage loan process such as the equity contributions was a major obstacle for low income earners I accessing funds.
 He, therefore, urged the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to ease the processes of securing mortgage loans by the beneficiaries of the National Housing Fund.
  He also observed that some houses in the FCT were locked by buyers who might not be ready to occupy them immediately.
“House owners put high price tags on their houses because of the initial cost of purchase and high cost of building materials. The houses are not occupied because the owners cannot rent them out at a
loss,’’ he said.  Also,  Mr. Ahmed Usman, the spokesman for Global Assets Company Ltd, an estate developer, solicited greater collaboration between real estate developers and appropriate authorities in housing sector.