The Nation Newspaper

Category: Building & Properties

  • How to spot a real estate scam

    SEVERAL house hunters have fallen victim to fraud.

    This is usually influenced by some features presented to them about the property to be leased.

    While new technologies have made it easier for property seekers to get all the information they need to supercharge their house hunt, the Internet has also made it easier for online fraudsters to target both buyers and renters. But by being aware of a few tell-tale signs, house-hunters can learn to quickly sort the scammers from the legitimate real estate agents.

    Global property network, Lamudi.com.ng, a leading online real estate market place exclusively focused on emerging markets, after a careful research, compiled a guide to help online property seekers avoid falling victim to a scam. The steps to be taken include:

     

    Avoid paying inspection fees

    Never agree to make any payments upfront or sign a contract without first inspecting the property no matter how official the documentation looks. Viewing the property and meeting the agent in person are the best ways to guarantee that the listing is legitimate.

     

    Verify the identity of the person you are dealing with

    Take steps to check the agent you are dealing with if he is a licensed broker or agent. In the first instance, a simple online search can help you detect a scam. Try searching for the property’s address, the name of the agent and their email address.

     

    Avoid listings that have been posted multiple times

    One common scam is for fraudsters to copy an existing (and legitimate) listing of a property for sale and repost it as a rental, with their own contact details attached. Look out for duplicate listings, which have different asking prices.

     

    Never give away your personal information or documents

    You should never be asked to provide your bank account details or personal identification documents to someone over the internet. Importantly, never provide your credit card verification

     

    Remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is

    One of the most important rules in real estate is that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. Be sceptical about any online listings for attractive properties, which are very well priced for the area. Scammers often use these very low prices to lure property seekers.

     

    If you detect a scam, get in touch

    Focus your search on properties listed by well-known real estate agencies and trusted classifieds websites. Once you have detected a possible scam on a real estate search website, notify the platform immediately.

  • Firm appointed for New Circle Mall leasing

    A South African based real estate investment management and development firm, RMB Westport, has appointed  Ibukun Efuntayo & Company (IEC), a firm of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, as part of its leasing team for the new Circle Mall (formerly Osapa Mall), in Lekki, Lagos.

    According to the firm’s Principal Consultant, Emmanuel Efuntayo, the appointment is a vote of confidence on the competence and expertise of the firm. This reasoning may not be faulted given the fact that the Circle Mall project is the second in the history of the partnership between RMB Westport and Ibukun Efuntayo & Co. and having being a part of the leasing team for the Ikeja City Mall, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, also developed and managed by RMB Westport.

    An elated Efuntayo thanked RMB for the appointment, describing it as a welcome gesture. “We appreciate and thank RMB Westport, for appointing us as part of the leasing team for this project; it is indeed a welcome gesture. We strongly feel this second appointment from them is an indication that they recognise and appreciate our expertise and competence in the retail leasing business,” he said.

    The Circle Mall is strategically located at the Jakande Roundabout on the Lekki-Epe Express Way, Lagos, and features a premium retail section, including a Business Centre. The retail section features open mall convenience shopping with a retail space capacity of 10,800m2 and 373 exclusive parking bays, among other facilities. The Business Centre, adjacent to the retail section, has an office space of 3,700m2 with 72 dedicated parking bays among other facilities.

    With this appointment, Ibukun Efuntayo & Co will be joining Broll Property Services Ltd., and Estate Links Ltd., the other two members of the team, to lease both retail and office spaces at the new Mall.

  • Minister: I‘ve signed over 2,000 Cs of O

    Minister: I‘ve signed over 2,000 Cs of O

    NO fewer than 2, 000 certificates of occupancy (Cs of O) have been signed since the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi, came on board.

    This figure represents a fraction of unsigned Cs of O since 2004, which she inherited.

    Mrs. Eyakenyi made this known  while inspecting the Abuja Property Development Corporation (APDC) project in Kubwa.

    She commended Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria(FMBN) for funding the project which is almost completed, and other projects all over the nation. She thanked the property developer, an arm of the Abuja investment company of FCDA, for a good work done so far.

    The 650 units at the site were of one, two- and three-bedroom apartments, and three-bedroom duplexes, whose prices range from N6 million to N27 million.

    Accompanied by the Chief Executive Officer of APDC, Bashir Haiba, and the Managing Director of FMBN, Gimba Yau Kumo, the minister urged the bank to support the APDC in introducing social housing in Abuja.

    She said the ministry was supporting developers with policies and financing, and that the ministry would ensure that all certificates of occupancy would be signed to enable developers access funds from lenders.

    The project has received over N1 billion from FMBN as loan  and is expected to be completed soon.

  • Lagos kicks off lease-to-own housing estate

    Lagos kicks off lease-to-own housing estate

    The affordable home ownership State Government and the First World Communities – a firm of real estate and new town developers – has taken off.

    Last week, Governor Babatunde Fashola unveiled the first phase of the initiative that will deliver 10, 000 housing units in the three senatorial districts of the state. The initiative is targetted at partly addressing the housing gap in the state.

    The deal, which comes under the aegis of the Lagos Cooperative Home Ownership Incentive Scheme Limited Partnership (Lagos CHOIS LP), is for low and medium income earners. It is to be built in safe and attractive communities.

    The CHOIS Garden Estate is sited in a gated community within the Abijo Government Reserved Area on the Ajah/Epe axis. It represents an emerging model of a sub-urban community developed as a ‘site and services scheme’ through the state’s New Towns Development Authority.

    The estate comprises 324 housing units of two- and three-bedroom apartments on two and three floors, three-bedroom semi-detached bungalows, four-bedroom semi-detached duplexes and three-bedroom private access masionettes of four in a block.

    The Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje, said the initiative , which took off in 2010, became necessary because of the realisation that most middle and low income households in the state find accessing mortgages to buy or build their homes difficult due to some factors.

    Under CHOIS, householders that are unable to afford mortgages can have access to a home on Lease-to-own basis. This allows subscribers to occupy the property on a lease, with the option to purchase it in small incremental steps as their socio-economic status improve.

    “With this, we encourage private investors to partner with us. The government cannot build; we are only regulators,” Jeje said.

    According to the President, First World Communities Limited, Brig. Gen. Tunde Reis (rtd), only the first and second phases of the project have been completed, adding that the motivation for the initiative is to make housing delivery systemic, rather than the traditional way that Nigerians have been used to building.  “Lagos has approximately five million housing deficits and there is need to look for an industrialised and systematic way of delivering the houses,” Reis noted.

    He listed the previous challenge in housing delivery and ownership as the affordability gap- that is, the difference between the cost of a house and what an intending buyer could afford to pay.

    Reis further explained that with the CHOIS initiative, the state government had addressed affordability to a lease-to-own scheme.

    The retired Army General said that the scheme is key because rather than a prospective home owner paying in full or depositing 30 per cent of the total cost for a property as done under a traditional mortgage, only 15 per cent deposit is required under the CHOIS scheme, whose prices ranges from N7 to N23 million.

    “Then, you pay a monthly lease payment to Lagos CHOIS Limited partnership and on your own you make payment annually when you have additional money to offset the balance and increase your balance towards purchasing it over a period of one to 10 years to complete the payment,” Reis said. For those on the National Housing Fund (NHF), there is also an opportunity to benefit from CHOIS.

    Fashola, praising the promoters of the scheme, said the partnership had created jobs for some youths, adding that there was a need to replicate more of such partnerships with the private sector.

    “We provided land; our private sector partner had the initiative while First City Monument Bank lend money to fund the project because they believed in the model and idea. If you really want to solve the problem of corruption, provide housing and mortgages for people to buy houses,” he said.

    Reis explained that partnership was limited without equity contributions, unlike in limited liability firms where parties have equity contributions in percentages. He was optimistic that the initiative would grow such that at a point rather than seek government funding, the project would be funding government through remittances on property tax; it will also become self-driven, he added.

    This is because the initiative was hinged on three important pillars of security, landscaping and affordability.

    “We need to create space to make sure the intended people actually benefit from this scheme,” he said.

    In all, there are about 25 hectares of land for the project; with about 15 hectares already developed in the first two phases.

    “What we are inaugurating is actually two phases of a three-phased development. We have been able to build so far in phases one and two 324 units with an additional 90 units still under construction. In the third phase, we will be developing 400 housing units,” Reis added.

     

  • Building affordable houses for all

    Building affordable houses for all

    Several government housing schemes have been criticised as unaffordable by those they were meant for. But the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development is insisting that it has made concerted efforts at delivering affordable houses, writes MUYIWA LUCAS

    THE passion with which the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi, has talked about her plans to house Nigerians and reduce the country’s 17 million housing deficit is infectious.

    She is always quick to flaunt her milestones in the sector, which she claims included reduction in housing deficit, improvement in the quality of houses delivered and increased affordability.

    These feats, according to her, have been achieved through the construction of 61, 000 units of houses in the four years of the present administration; the flag off of 100, 000  housing units across the country, including the creation of 23, 000 new housing mortgages; projected four million houses in three years; foreign direct investment and energising the biggest housing development by the private sector in Nigeria.

    In trying to reduce the deficit in housing, Mrs. Eyakenyi explained that her ministry encouraged direct funding through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). This aspect, it is believed, is where the establishment of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) has a role to play. The NMRC has the responsibility to take charge of refinancing the mortgage institutions to provide affordable housing to Nigerians. The NMRC is said to have offered 23, 000 new mortgages and 10,000 new housing units so far.

    Mrs Eyakenyi said the flag-off of the first 20,000 units out of the 100,000 housing units, which according to her are specifically for workers, was done in Apo, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), last year.

     

    PPP and Financing

    Mrs. Eyakenyi said the 10,000 housing units project took off in Abuja at Gwagwalada, and was undertaken by a Signature Company from Dubai. Aside this, she said there are private developers who also come up with housing projects.

    She  explained that there is cordial relationship with the World Bank through the Ministry of Finance. The NMRC, she said, has got from the World Bank about $300million to be repaid in 30 years at zero interest rate. This is to help the re-inauguration of the mortgage institutions in the country to support the housing sector.

    Developers, she said, will be investing about N300 million in the 20, 000 housing units in Apo  for the initial take-off of the project, while the ones in Gwagwalada being handled by Signature homes from Dubai, is going to put up about 4,000 housing units with a budget of about $80 million for one developer. Other developers, numbering about 10, the Minister explained, will be contributing 200 housing units.

    “We also have other developers about to mobilise to site and we are processing their documentation, the signing of MoU before they are taken to site of about 200 hectares of land to ensure we give each developer, depending on their financial strength and what each its interested in delivering, to ensure timely delivery,” she said.

     

    Affordability

    Mrs.Eyakenyi said when considering the affordability of a house, the various cadres of  civil servants and target for them play a vital role.

    She said: “For a low income person on level three to four, earning may be N20,000 in a month over a period of time, what level of a home can such a person own through his or her own finance afford?”

    She said such consideration made the ministry to  provide a one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, including studio apartment, that is, one-bedroom portable home that a bachelor can stay conveniently with toilet/bathroom closet and kitchen cabinet.

    She assured that once the cadre has been identified, the government will fix prices to fit into the different cadre at subsidised cost. “Why I say subsidised is that government will provide the land free of charge and the government through the ministry will do different types’ design, electrical, mechanical then bill of quantity and the cost of doing that is on government.

    “Apart from that, supervision, which is the most important thing to ensure that the standard is maintained, is done by professionals in the ministry free of charge. So, that takes off part of construction cost and at the end of the day we will be left only with the cost of materials; the labour for the construction.

    “If it is a private developer who handles it, the highest is to top up with 50 per cent, at least to compensate for the time and the resources he or she will bring to do the construction. So, that is a way to put the cost of construction at a very low rate and that is what we meant by affordable. Again, the rate at which a private developer will build to sell is different from the rate the government sells, because government incurs that cost of land, supervision and all.”

     

    Curbing building collapse

    She said the ministry is making serious move to curb building collapse in the country, adding that this led to the review of the country’s building code, but not being implemented. She regretted that some contractors ignored laid down specifications for putting up structures which usually lead to building collapse.

    “When the mixture of sand outweighs the cement, the building may collapse after a short while, either because of heat or excessive down pour. There are standards for laying foundation for one-bedroom, a flat or for laying a foundation for a storey building, the rods, concretes are all part of the standard that must be adhered to,” she explained.

    However, the ministry has addressed stakeholders to ensure that the building code ethics are strictly followed to curtail building collapse in the country.

     

    Challenges so far

    Notwithstanding the lofty initiatives and the seeming inflow of private developers into the sector, there are still challenges.

    “The challenges I have faced, borders on funding to go out and look for developers and partner with government and Nigerians to also come to partner, I think basically that is our major challenge, because when you talk about building, you need funding,” Mrs. Eyakenyi said.

    Besides,the ministry not having a land of its own constitutes another challenge. It pays to acquire land for its projects.

    “We now go to the state governors for them to partner with us because the federal government is bringing projects to their states. All we need is for them to acquire land as compensation and give us the C of O and a letter of exchange, then we will now call in the developers to put up a structure for the benefit of the people of the state, however, some states have not responded,” Mrs Eyakenyi said.

  • Firm commits to quality housing

    FORTHRIGHT Properties Limited, owners of Forthright Gardens, has reaffirmed its commitment to reducing Nigeria’s housing deficit. The company has  flagged off the sales of its site, the Forthright Gardens Annex, a serviced-plot estate located at Km 14, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, behind Punch Place, Magboro.

    Its Managing Director, Mr. Isaac Akintoye, said: “We intend to reduce Nigeria’s housing deficit by supporting the government in its effort to provide standard and pocket-friendly housing to Nigerians.”

    He assured prospective buyers and investors of value for their money, adding that they stand to enjoy services and facilities such as: global C of O; 24-hours security to be provided by well-trained officers; perimeter fencing and gate; road network and drainage; serene and beautiful landscape; dedicated transformer; flood/security lighting; ample parking facility; intercom system linked with the estate security post; active recreation/green area; standard plots; mortgage facility and instalment, among others.

    Forthright Gardens Annex is the second phase of its project, after the first phase had recorded huge success and patronage from Nigerians.

    Akintoye said: “Forthright Properties Limited has a growing capacity to contribute its quota to meet the housing demands of Nigerians, as it is evidently clear that government alone cannot meet this. To this end, we are promoting construction of more housing units for Nigerians,” he said.

  • Strengthen FHA for housing delivery, say stakeholders

    Strengthen FHA for housing delivery, say stakeholders

    The Federal Government has been urged to strengthen the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to enable it deliver on low-cost housing.

    Arising from a FHA management retreat, stakeholders urged the government to transform the authority into a regulatory agency so as to have better control of the housing sector.

    In a communique issued after the retreat held at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Conference Centre in Abuja, the participants said the envisaged transformation would enable the FHA make the desired impact as government’s foremost housing agency.

    They further advised that the proposed private sector driven Federal Housing Corporation, which the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) reform document recommended as a successor to FHA, should inherit the commercial housing component of the Authority’s mandate.

    In the communiqué, the participants drawn from the Authority’s Technical Board, Interim Management Team and other critical stakeholders, recommended that the reform document be realigned to meet with the current realities in the country.

    The three-page communiqué enjoined the government to provide adequate financial power for the FHA to enable it deliver on its responsibilities as enunciated in the social housing components of the reform package.

    The communiqué decried the 18-month tenure given to the Interim Management Team and advised that the current interim structure be upgraded to a full tenure of four years to enable the management pursue the reform process to its logical conclusion.

    Noting that the government was not mulling the FHA privatisation, the participants said the restructuring and commercialisation of the agency deserved the support of all.

    Stressing that the reform of the FHA for effective housing delivery was an imperative action, it called attention to the misalignment between population growth and the nation’s urban development and called for the prioritisation of the provision of social/affordable housing in the country.

    FHA’s Managing Director, Professor Mohammed Al-Amin, in an exclusive chat with The Nation, said the Authority’s desire to go into social housing for which a special task team comprising professionals and experts have been set up to study the partnership system and come up with a template for social housing.

    “Social housing involves houses for low income earners; houses that are very much affordable of which a lot of Nigerians belong,” he said, adding that the partnership system that  was in place before his appointment focused more on the commercial system.

    Al-Amin, however, admitted that government cannot go into social housing alone, hence, the need for partnership. But having such partnerships, he reckoned, the FHA has to  come up with new realities, which requires that other private sector social housing driven companies be invited.

    “We can partner several government organisations, unions, trade unions, trade organisations and others in this area. This will then enable us to fashion out a way of bringing down whatever the interest rate is to a single digit and  negotiate with the government at all levels to come into the provision of infrastructure in housing because most of the cost or the high percentage of the cost that translates into the final market cost of a house is being risen by the cost of infrastructure being built into it,” Al-Amin said.

    He assured that social housing would be embedded in the reform going on in the sector, saying that what the Authority is looking for is to provide shelter for Nigerians at low cost.

    Other participants at the retreat included Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki; members of the FHA’s Technical Board and the Interim Management Team; the National President, Senior Staff Association of Corporations, Transport, and Communications (SSACTAC) and representatives of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUCPTRE).

  • Minister lauds agency over desertification

    The Minister of Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, has praised the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) for the development of shelterbelts in the North to curb desertification.

    She spoke at a stakeholders forum organised by NAGGW in Katsina State, last week.

    Mrs Mallam praised the agency’s for providing improved seedlings, alternative cooking devices and potable water to the communities within the GGW corridor; development and management of orchards and other measures that have helped to reduce desertification scourge in the North.

    The minister, represented by the coordinator of the Afforestation Programme Coordinating Unit (APCU) Kano, Mr. Ado Saminu,  said she was glad to be part of the steady and progressive activities of the young and dynamic National Agency for Great Green Wall. She further noted that the determination, commitment and focus in the pursuit of excellence as well as the symbolic relationship in the management and harnessing of land resources for the betterment of the people was vital to the achievement of success in the fight against desertification in the north.

    She explained that the GGW programme is a holistic approach being undertaking in which stakeholders are encouraged to contribute their quotas through popular participation.

    The Katsina State Commissioner for Environment, Abdullahi Aliyu, disclosed that the state has established 26 kilometers of shelterbelts, and assured that the state will support the federal government’s efforts at fighting desertification and environmental degradation challenges in the north.

    The Director-General, NAGGW, Mr. Goni Ahmed, who was represented by Head, Community Mobilisation and Sensitisation, NAGGW, Hajia Bintu Kolo Mohammed, said the outcome of the conference will be handy in addressing the status, challenges and prospects of the NAGGW, in other to ensure that it contributes to sustainable development through employment creation, product development, income generation and poverty reduction.

  • Firm to build 1,000 houses in Southwest

    MORE private sector participants are joining the government  in providing affordable housing for the public.

    The latest entrant  is Le Venue Property Development Company (LVPD) Limited, a member of the Le’ Venue Group, which has concluded plans to build 1,000 housing units yearly across the Southwest.

    Le’Venue, whose vision is to be a “One- Stop Shop” for real estate solutions, said it is embarking on a partnership with major financial institutions and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) to ensure a seamless mortgage scheme for buyers, who need mortgage to fund their acquisition. Besides, LVPD is also partnering with registered cooperatives to cater for their needs in terms of pricing, location and implementing flexible, long-term payment plans for various classes of income earners.

    The Group Managing Director, Le’ Venue Group, Mr. Jemine Adollo, said measures were being taken to complement government’s efforts, which he said is aimed at boosting the housing stock across the southwest region at an all-time low.

    “Le’Venue Property Development Company is determined to play a vital role in the provision of affordable housing for all across the southwest region for a start and across the federation over the next five years. To this end, we have started the process by shortlisting contractors for the construction of various house types at our existing properties including Clara’s Court Estate in Ibeju-Lekki and Rose Court Garden Estate in Ikorodu, both in Lagos State and Eden Park Estate in Magboro, Ogun State,” Adollo said.

    He added that LVPD  would soon deliver over 200 units of semi-detached four-bedroom duplexes, semi-detached three-bedroom bungalows and fully-detached two-bedroom bungalows at its estates in Lagos and Ogun States.

  • FHA set to transform FESTAC, Gwarimpa, others

    The FESTAC housing scheme in Lagos which was built in 1977, and the Gwarimpa Estate, Abuja, are to be rehabilitated under the Federal Government’s urban renewal initiative.

    Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Managing Director Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin said under the initiative, projects to  be worked on have been prioritised, based on the estate’s age. FESTAC, he said, is among the first generation of estates that deserve FHA’s attention.

    He said many issues would be resolved before the project starts, adding that for instance, there were issues of non- payment of statutory fees, allocations and multiple uses in lands restricted for extension.

    Al-Amin said a four-prong approach has been adopted for Gwarimpa Estate, pointing out that this is because there are four native settlements/villages that are still part of Gwarimpa. Hence, negotiations are on going, trying to convince the locals to accept relocation to another place temporarily, while the government tries to remove their shanties, construct high rise buildings, and then allocate a certain unit of those blocks to them.

    “This is a new system of urban regeneration, where you integrate the original inhabitants of urban communities.We are starting it for the first time in Nigeria. The so called neighbourhood centres that we have both in FESTAC and in Gwarimpa are going to be transformed to not only market type of barrack stalls and shops, but into modern mini-malls where you can get in there, buy almost all you want and then come out within a beautiful parking lot with all the security or facilities that you have that is what we are planning and that is what is coming to FESTAC,” Al-Amin explained.

    He said just as modern estate around the world have fantastic facilities, utilities and services, which he said, are absent in FESTAC estate as well as in other estates in the country, the FHA is determined to create a very large area of its estate and erect solar farm, which he reckons will take the estates off the national electricity crisis, and making electric power available for the occupants of the estates 24 hours.

    Other services to be improved on include the fire service, the landline telephones for houses and excellent security system with CCTV cameras, a dedicated line for water system. These are to start with Gwarimpa scheme, and then taken to FESTAC.

    Also, the landscaping issue, for instance, in Gwarimpa, will see the environment benefitting from a planned planting of seven million trees in the area this year alone. This, according to the FHA boss, is in line with the thinking of bringing Gwarimpa to a standard of the neighbourhood that is known as Surrey in England, where most of the rich live. “Most of the millionaires don’t stay in London really, they migrate to Surrey because of the fantastic things that are there. This is exactly what is going to happen in Gwarimpa and FESTAC and not only in these two places, but across the country,” Al-Amin added.

    But the regeneration of an estate as huge as FESTAC or Gwarimpa involves huge capital. This is a source of worry for stakeholders who said the government alone cannot muscle the financial requirement for this initiative.

    The FHA boss explained that the financing of the scheme would not be handled by an entity, and that FHA as facilitators for this urban renewal programme, has its own budgets, just as the private developers that are participating in the project also have a certain amount of money that they have injected.

    Besides, the residents will have to bear certain costs, which are normally the commitment that they are owing the authority. “If you have spent 10 years without paying, we will ask you to pay just for five years and then we will wave the rest. If you have altered the structures that we have provided, you will need to pay us planning fees. We are going to subsidise it, but ensure within certain period that fee is paid. If there are some other contraventions that attract penalties we will encourage you to pay,” he said.

    On FESTAC, Al-Amin said some issues were being sorted out; work on the FESTAC Phase II development had been okayed by the Federal Government under a new model by conceding a certain part of the area to private developers to provide services, come up with a fantastic designs and allocate the lands to people under strict supervision.

    This area will be competing with Dubai up to Geneva, or even Los Angeles in terms of structures, when completed, Al-Amin added.