The Nation Newspaper

Category: Building & Properties

  • Management changes at LCC

    The Managing Director/CEO of Lekki Concession Company Ltd (LCC), Mr Opuiyo Oforiokuma, has been appointed Managing Director of the Asset & Resource Management Company Ltd (“ARM”) Infrastructure Fund (ARM Infrastructure), with effect from October 1, 2012.

    In a statement, MD/CEO of ARM, Mr Deji Alli, said Oforiokuma’s move was an important step to ARM’s infrastructure strategy,
    “Developing and managing infrastructure in West Africa, and in Nigeria in particular, have long been an integral part of ARM’s vision and long-term strategic plan. We have steadily and purposefully pursued our infrastructure strategy from as far back as 2000, evidence of which is our successful achievement of financial close of the Lekki Toll Road transaction in 2008″, he said.

    Alli added: “Establishing LCC, and demonstrating the possibilities in the infrastructure space, was the first stage of implementing our vision and strategic plan. We believe that we have done this over the last six years with Opuiyo Oforiokuma at the helm of LCC.

    “The next stages for us now are to develop a broader infrastructure platform, with a focus that goes beyond Toll Roads. The vehicle for that is ARM Infrastructure.

    We already have a number of new infrastructure deals under development within the ARM Infrastructure pipeline, and are observing an increasing momentum in the pace of development in the infrastructure sector within our target geographical zone.

    We, therefore, believe that it is the right time to ask Mr Oforiokuma, who has 25 years of international experience and a proven track record in infrastructure development and management, to take on the responsibility for leading the next stage of implementation of our vision and strategy in this space.”

    Reacting to the announcement, Mr Oforiokuma said: “It has been my privilege to have led the multi-talented, passionate, and highly committed group of individuals that have made LCC what it is today, and to have enjoyed tremendous support from our PPP partner, Lagos State government, our bankers, shareholders, and various key stakeholder groups interested in the project, these past six years.”

    He noted: “ While there were challenges at times, and that there are some still to overcome, we are pleased that we have made visible progress to date.

    Being in a position to now develop a broader range of Infrastructure opportunities through a credible group such as ARM, is a tremendous opportunity and natural next step. There’s a lot more to do in the infrastructure space in Nigeria and West Africa, and we believe that ARM has a lot to offer.”

    Mr Oforiokuma was appointed by ARM as LCC’s first Managing Director/CEO, in 2006, and has led the Company from inception to the present time, steering the Company along its pioneering journey as Nigeria’s first-ever Public-Private-Partnership (“PPP”) Toll Road Concession.

    This journey according to the statement, has included the achievement of financial close of LCC’s N50 billion long-term financing package, on ground-breaking terms for Nigeria; gaining several prestigious local and international awards; execution and delivery of the first two road sections of the new Eti-Osa Lekki-Epe Expressway; and building strong brand name recognition for LCC locally and internationally; amongst several other notable achievements.

    ARM’s shareholding in LCC according to the statement now falls within the ARM Infrastructure portfolio.

    “Therefore, Mr Oforiokuma, who will remain on the Board of LCC as a non-executive Director, will continue to provide advice to the Company, as well as exercise oversight over ARM’s investment in LCC. Furthermore, to assist with the Company’s transition to new management, and to ensure continuity while new developments such as the commencement of the next stage of direct tolling of the expressway are implemented, Mr Oforiokuma will remain the Company’s chief media and public relations spokesman for some time,” the statement added.

    While recruitment of LCC’s next substantive Managing Director/CEO is ongoing, the statement said Mr Mike Edington, currently Head of Asset Management at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (“AIIM”), and a Board Director of LCC, will take on responsibility for the day-to-day running of all aspects of LCC in the capacity of Acting Managing Director/CEO. AIIM, the official representative of the foreign shareholder in LCC, is a 50:50 Joint Venture between Macquarie Bank Group of Australia and Old Mutual of South Africa. Mr Edington has a long and distinguished career spanning more than 40 years in infrastructure development and management.

    His previous roles include Head of Project Finance at Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest and most reputable banking institutions, and Head of Concessions at Aveng Grinaker LTA, one of South Africa’s largest multi-disciplinary civil engineering and construction contracting companies.

    Further changes that are being implemented at LCC include the appointment of Mr Benson Ajayi and Mr Jobalo Oshikanlu, currently LCC Head of Finance and LCC Head of Legal, respectively, and both of whom have been members of LCC’s senior management team for the last six years, as Acting Executive Directors on the Board of LCC.

    ARM Infrastructure is set up to manage the new US$250 Million specialist infrastructure equity fund being established by ARM, with a focus on developing and managing a broader portfolio of infrastructure assets throughout Nigeria and West Africa, including power, transport, and water.

    ARM, a leading diversified financial services institution with businesses focusing on Traditional Asset Management and Specialised Funds, within which various products and bespoke asset management services are offered to its diverse clients, is LCC’s founding shareholder and co-sponsor of the pioneering Lekki Toll Road Concession, currently being implemented by LCC under a 30-year mandate from Lagos State Government.

  • Entries for young architects’ competition close

    Nigerite Limited, the manufacturers of NIT fibre cement roofing and ceiling sheets, has announced the closure of entries for 2012 Young Architects and Students Competition.

    The competition, which is being organised in conjunction with the Africa Union of Architects (AUA) will have jurors reviewing entries from today to Thursday at its head office in Lagos.

    According to a statement by Nigerite’s Communications Manager, Mr Dapo Ajayi, “winners will be announced at a media parley on Friday at the company’s premises in Lagos.”

    The Managing Director of Nigerite Limited, Mr Jean Luc Viatour, and other top management staff of the company are expected to attend the event.

    Ajayi said that winners will be invited for the grand finale of the award which will come up in Accra, Ghana on October 5, 2012.

    Nigerite has over the years continued to lend support to educational institutions at all levels from primary through secondary and tertiary institutions.

    It has been vibrant in the area of capacity building by providing outstanding platforms for Nigerian youths to develop their minds and body towards influencing a new and rewarding society.

    The company has been carrying the flag on youth leadership and change through ‘Youth our Future’ programme which was put together for all round development of the Nigerian youth.

    It has forged partnerships with individuals, organisations and all levels of governments that share the vision of a bright future for the Nigerian youths.

    Nigerite Limited is a member of Etex Group; the largest company in Africa which engages in the manufacturing of NT fibre cement roofing and ceiling sheets, concrete roofing tiles and vinyl floor tiles.

    It was incorporated in Nigeria in 1959 and started operations in 1961. Awarded the NIS ISO 9002 (Certificate of the quality management system for the manufacture, sales and installation of fibre-reinforced building materials and PVC floor tiles), NIS ISO 14001 (Certificate of the Environmental Management Systems) and NIS ISO 9001:2000 Certificates in March 1998, September 2002 and December 2002 respectively.

    Nigerite Limited is a venture between Odua Investment Corporation Limited and Etex Group of Belgium.

  • Lagos builds three housing estates

    The effort of the Lagos State Government to provide decent housing for its teeming population is yielding fruits as three new projects will be handed over to subscribers soon.
    They are a block of luxury flats at Parkview Ikoyi, Maisonette duplex at Ikeja and Gbagada Housing schemes, expressed satisfaction with the rate of completion of the luxury flats at Parkview, Ikoyi.
    He praised the contractors for a job well done and for striving to deliver within the time frame.
    The six units of three-bedroom flats sit on 2,100 square metres in the highbrow area. Its facilities include swimming pool, lawn tennis court, adequate parking space, water treatment plant and others.
    Gbagada has 11 blocks of 88 units of three and four-bedroom maisonettes on a 3.262 hectares of land.
    Ikeja has 76 units of four-bedroom maisonettes in the GRA. The estate has the accompaniment of paved roads with parking lots; mini-water works and independent power supply.
    Jeje expressed satisfaction at the pace of work done and promised that the project will be delivered as at when due.

  • Land allocation abuse

    Sometimes ago there was a news item about a former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja allocating several plots of land to his wives, the President and other cronies some of which were done the day he was leaving office. Similarly, a lot of furore has been generated by several abuses of land allocation in Ogun State of recent.

    If other states are examined, the story is not likely to be different. We also woke up one morning only to be told that two first ladies were fighting over allocation of the same plot in Abuja.

    A former first lady claimed that the land in question was allocated to her while a present one was equally allocated the same piece of land! There had also been several cases of political vindictiveness in some states where allocations of land were revoked not for public overriding purposes but because the alottees belong to different political parties from those of the incumbent governors. Those who drafted the land use decree (now Act) must have thought that these kind of things would happen by not arrogating the power to allocate land absolutely to one person, the state governor.

    In their wisdom, they made provision for the establishment of a “Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC) whose purpose is to make sure that the process of land allocation to the citizens of each state is subjected to some processes of scrutiny and rational reasoning before allocations of land are made. Hence, section 2.2 of the Land Use Act (LUA) provides. “There shall be established in each state a body to be known as “the Land Use and Allocation Committee” which shall have responsibility for:-
    (a) Advising the Military Governor on any matter connected with the management of land to which paragraph (a) of subsection (1) above relates;

    (b). Advising the Military Governor on any matter connected with the resettlement of persons affected by the revocation of rights of occupancy on the ground of overriding public interest under this Decree; and

    (c) Determining disputes as to the amount of compensation payable under this Decree for improvements on land.
    Now paragraph (a) of subsection (1) states – “As from the commencement of this Decree, all land in urban areas shall be under the control and management of the Military Governor of each state”.

    It is clear from these two sections that the control and management of land in each state is to be done by the Governor subject to or with the advice of the Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC)!
    Section 5 of the decree also made similar provision in respect of land in the rural areas, i.e. “there shall be established a Land Allocation Advisory Committee in each local government to advise the local government on any matter connected with the management of land to which paragraph (b) of subsection (1) above refers”.

    The subsection referred to states- “all other land shall subject to this Decree, be under the control and management of the local government within the area of jurisdiction of which the land is situated”

    It follows therefore that the management and control of land in the rural areas should also be subject to the advice of the “Land Allocation Advisory Committee” to be set up in each local government areas.

    The question that should come to mind now is how many state governments have constituted Land Use and Allocation Committee? In the absence of such a committee, state governors have continued to singularly excise the right to allocate land in their states to whoever pleases them and at rates and conditions determined by them! That is why it is possible for some governors to allocate land to their cronies with a waiver of statutory payments some to even to ridiculous extents! The case of Ogun State may be a child’s play if what is happening or has happened in most other states are exposed.

    In the same way, if the FCT has a functional Land Use and Allocation Committee, most of the abuses of land allocation that have been exposed there may not have happened. A former Minister of the FCT discovered and exposed a lot of irregularities in the allocation of land in the Federal Capital where land meant for public uses, open spaces and land over sewers were allocated to cronies of people in power but he is said to have ended up committing similar offences during his own tenure.

    “Absolute power corrupts” is a common saying. Perhaps this is what was in the mind of those who drafted the Land Use Decree that made them to insert the clause that provided for the Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC). Unfortunately, ours is a country where those in power choose which part of the laws they will obey. In more civilized countries, somebody would have gone to court to compel the Governors to obey this constitutional requirement of the Land Use Act to constitute the Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC) as provided for in the law.

    Section 2.3 made provision for the membership of the Land Use and Allocation Committee. This is to include a legal practitioner and two estate surveyors and valuers of not less than five (5) years’ experience. The inclusion of these professionals is to bring some professional expertise to the process of control and management of land in the states.
    The writers of the law must have envisaged that the Governors would not necessarily be knowledgeable enough in the management of land- a very scarce resource. Hence the provision for two estate surveyors who are trained in the economics of land use and management in the committee. This is to ensure that every action to be taken by the Governor would have passed the necessary test during the deliberation of the committee. In the same vein, all the legal implications of any excise to be recommended by the committee would have been subjected to legal scrutiny to ensure that all actions of the Governors in the process of land allocation and management including revocation of rights are perfectly within the law.

    There is little wonder then why there had been several abuses of land uses whereby land meant for public open spaces, schools, hospitals, shops, fire and police, etc. have been converted to residential plots and allocated to satisfy the demands of friends and political associates of the governors in power! The Land Use and Allocation Committee would have prevented these happening if such decisions have passed through them. But even in the few cases where such committees have been constituted, these professionals are not included as provided by the law.

    There had been calls for the removal of the Land Use Act from the constitution to make it amenable to amendments as and when necessary or to amend several parts of it which have been found unworkable. Thirteen years of the National Assemblies have failed to produce a single amendment to this law! Perhaps the on-going proposal to amend parts of the 1979 constitution to which the Land Use Act was made a part of by the Obasanjo’s supreme military council by a fiat will finally direct its search light on this part of the constitution.

    If this happens, it will be delighted if an amendment could be made to make it compulsory for all land allocations by the Governors to be subject to the recommendation of the Land Use and Allocation Committee. If this is done, it will, to some extent, curb or reduce the flagrant abuse of the process of land allocation by the Governors.

  • Why honesty is important

    The importance of integrity in real estate transactions cannot be over emphasised. It is always good to foster a climate of honesty and morality, failure to do it can have unintended and unexpected consequences.

    To underscore its importance, an extensive study by a group said: “Honesty and trustworthiness is ranked the most important factor when choosing an agent to work with or in any business concern for that matter.”

    It is, therefore, relevant that we pay attention to some of the intriguing and occasionally disturbing issues confronting those in the sector. Once a client notices a slip from an agent or a business associate, he will be on his guard while nursing the feeling that he may probably be dealing with a rogue agent.

    As a matter of fact, he will pursue that line of thinking except there is a clear departure in terms of attitude change and confidence building in future engagements. “Faking it” – exaggerating or being deliberately misleading about one’s status – and engaging in other acts of dishonesty is not in tandem with property business.

    The sad thing about this business is that most people are willing to be somewhat dishonest in order to better themselves.
    The reward does not even have to be significantly large – it might be just a little higher than the agreed margin or figure.
    It should also be noted that most people will not be grossly dishonest or engage in blatant cheating even if the prospect of being caught is clearly zero.

    People who engage in fakery about themselves show a much greater than normal willingness to be dishonest and usually it will just be a matter of time before their real selves are discovered by a greater majority.

    Somebody related this story to me of how he saved all he had to buy a piece of land at Ibafo, along the Lagos /Ibadan expressway.
    He said: “I meet this agent who mouthed his prowess in buying properties for clients along the axis and trusted him with all l had. He even showcased pictures and numbers of those he had worked for – all that took me in and l fell for his sweet talks.”

    The summary of the story is that l was in a kind of fix because l was under pressure to get a piece of land and start the project to move myself in. After dribbling me for a long while we finally settled on a piece of land and l lost the time l so much desired to gain.

    All his promises that l will get the property in two weeks extended to over six months after taking me to several properties with encumbrances. At the end of it l was left not only exhausted but completely devastated as l spent more than l planned to do in settling several landowners.”

    From my experience l learnt that in property business transactions, the bottom line is that we should not view a single act of dishonesty as just one petty act.
    We should also realise that the first act of dishonesty might be particularly important in shaping the way a person looks at a property agent or business associate himself from that point on… that is why it is important to cut down on the number of seemingly innocuous singular acts of dishonesty.

    The truth is that immoral acts in one domain can influence our morality in other domains. That being the case, we should focus on early signs of dishonest behaviours and do our best to cut them down in their budding stages before they reach full bloom.
    It is not too hard to apply these lessons to the real estate business. It is understandable, but regrettable, that agents – and companies – will frequently engage in puffery, not just about their properties but about themselves.

    In the never-ending quest to gain market share there is a constant temptation to fake it – to say or claim a bit more about ourselves than may actually be true.

    Unfortunately, a lot of people exaggerate about their job performance, education, past experience, etc. And there is a tendency to say, “What harm can there be in that? Everyone does it. No one gets hurt.”

    It’s always better to pay heed to those little hunches before you go all the way. Good luck!

  • How to rent part of your house for income

    Renting part of your house to a tenant may generate the extra cash that you need but it may also attract some untoward consequences, though not in all cases.

    The first rule is to be prepared to tolerate the excesses of some tenants, if you are unlucky to get an unruly and boisterous tenant.

    Many landlords vow that they will never live in the same compound with their tenants, but I have come to find out that this line of thinking is mutual as some tenants will also swear that nothing will make them live in the same environment with their landlords.

    The relationship is more challenging if you have common areas with your tenant and have need to either contribute money to maintain it or do it yourselves.

    This challenge is more pronounced on Saturdays when families do their laundry and have limited space for airing or hanging their clothes, and where the compound generally needs to be cleaned either jointly or paid for. If you don’t deal with the issues squarely it may escalate and bring a lot of bad blood in the same environment.
    The way to go is to start on an official note.

    A landlord-tenant relationship is not personal; it’s business. The important thing to remember when you are thinking about bringing in a tenant is that it’s a business deal, not a friendship. You need to do everything and anything a landlord would do, including charging a security deposit and establishing all the rules and regulations upfront.

    A potential landlord’s first order of business is to decide whether the income is worth the loss of privacy and stress associated with it if, for instance, he is unlucky to have a noisy and uncontrollable tenant.

    One needs to think carefully about whether they want to live with someone else; it does not matter how big or small the compound is.

    If the house is in flats it becomes a lot easier, but if it is tenement rooms, the challenges become more pronounced because as a landlord you have to decide if you are willing to share a bathroom, toilet and a kitchen or look for money to build these convenience for your personal use.

    “It’s important to know what you want and how you want to live, even in terms of the hours you and your tenants can keep and types of friends you can bring in.”

    The rules cannot be changed mid-way, so it’s always better to draw the line at the start of business.
    Things as how many cars that can be parked inside and how to share security, electricity and water rate bills if there is no provision for separate metres must be sorted out at the onset of the business transaction.

    A landlord will do himself a world of good by providing all that he needs to provide in the house for the comfort of the tenant and refrain from looking only at what will come in as rentals while neglecting the comfort of the tenant. It’s also important for him to get legal advice as to his right and that of the tenant.

    In Lagos for instance, the new Tenancy Law makes it illegal for any landlord to receive more than a year rent from a new tenant otherwise he will be liable to pay a fine of N100, 000 or be sentenced to three years imprisonment. As a landlord you don’t want to run foul of the law, ignorance they say is not an excuse in law! On the other hand, it will also be unlawful for a tenant to offer to pay more than a year rent even though it gives room for the two parties to sign a tenancy agreement. The law, the state government said was put in place to protect the landlord and tenant, so if as a tenant or landlord you carelessly enter into an agreement to beat the law by clandestinely paying or accepting above what the law stipulates and the business goes sour none of the parties will be able to get any relief from the court.

    The caution here is that in your hurry to collect rentals please educate yourself on the responsibilities of each party to the agreement and the government angle to it. I have seen a situation where a tenant exploited the loophole in an agreement to stay for over five years in a property without paying rentals. The watchword here is while trying to earn income from your hard earned property don’t allow yourself to be taken advantage of. Take all precautions and stay on the side of the law. Goodluck!

  • Unilever partners Facebook , others to deliver drinking water to communities

    Unilever, through the Unilever Foundation, in partnership with PSI (Population Services International) has announced the launch of Waterworks, a non-for-profit programme, that will provide safe clean drinking water to communities in need around the world.

    Waterworks, which operates through a ground-breaking Timeline application developed jointly with Facebook, will connect people with means directly with people and communities in need.

    Water is the source of life, but almost 800 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water. Preventable water-borne diseases, such as dysentery and diarrhoea are a particular threat to the weakest members of society: a child dies from water-related illness every 20 seconds.

    Unilever’s Chief Marketing Officer, Keith Weed, said his company has made a public and ambitious commitment through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to provide safe drinking water to 500 million people by 2020 working in partnership with others.

    He said they share the belief with United Nation’s declaration in July 2010 which states that safe and clean drinking water is a human right. On the reason behind the partnership with Facebook, he said:

    “At Unilever, we believe that small, everyday actions can add up to a big difference; and that the power of social connections can drive real change around the world.

    On Facebook, nearly a billion people take small actions every day, they connect to the individuals and organisations that matter most to them and they discover new things through their friends. We want to leverage the power of the social graph and the ripple effects that each person’s actions can create, to inspire and enrol many more to make a difference.”
    Waterworks is among the first Timeline applications for charitable giving, connecting Facebook users around the world with real individuals and communities in need. People will be invited to sign up and connect the application to their Facebook Timeline.

    In addition they will partner with a PSI-trained Waterworker and choose a small daily donation and the contributed funds will directly support the water-poor communities, by providing education about the benefits of clean drinking water in addition to distributing water purifiers and sachets to families in need, Weed said.

  • Challenges of colour variation in painting

    The fundamental function of painting in a building is the preservation of the exposed construction materials from deterioration.

    To enhance the aesthetic value of buildings, the decorating aspect of painting becomes prominent, leading to colour selection. Painting reveals the poorness or quality of plastering and rendering.

    During painting, crevices in rendered walls become visible, enabling concealment with the application of poly filler and coats.

    Smoothness of wall surface is appreciated in gloss or emotion paint. A poorly rendered wall surface necessitates, in most cases, the use of textured paint in order to hide the roughness of the wall surface. Of course, textured paint protects the external walls from serious weather effects, however, it provides better grip for reptiles.

    It is quite difficult to place the actual colour of a paint until it has sufficiently become dry on the wall. And according to Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), paint after 168 hours of exposure shall exhibit little or no change in colour.

    On the field, spreading rate or coverage of a paint has been discovered, at times, to be at variance with the specification even when thinned with water not exceeding manufacturer’s instruction and under normal application.

    Applying another coat for different batches cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, using a particular colour paint from different batches in the same room or on the same stretch of wall is risky as noticeable colour variation might appear.

    Science and technology have witnessed great acceleration in recent times all over the world, creating perfection in the production of various goods. Improvement in paint production in Nigeria should not yield to defeatist philosophy of impossibility.

    The embarrassing and costly colour variation issue should be addressed with all seriousness to enhance the value of painting and decorating in the nation’s building industry.

  • Furniture firm targets upscale market

    Consumer’s furniture company, Aframero Limited, exhibited some of its product recently at the just-concluded furtex international furniture, home textiles and home suppliers trade fair held in Lagos, last week.

    Aframero Limited not only supplies premium quality building and woodworking materials to the construction and furniture sector, it also provides advisory services.

    Its Managing Director, Mrs. Yetunde Oghomienor said the company was birthed to fill the gap in high quality interior finishing materials at affordable prices. She said the company’s main products include wood composite panels like medium density fibrewood, and Formica brand counter tops.

    In addition, she said their products carry the widest range of colours, finishes, and sizes.
    According to her, Aframero’s kitchen accessories include magic corner, pantry unit, pullout basket and other items that makes a kitchen beautiful and making working easier and more pleasurable.

    The company’s general manager Mr. clement Sampson describe Aframero limited as a one stop shop were you get all your furniture materials and accessories.

    On the target market she revealed that the product is targeted at professionals, specifiers in the building sectors, architects, builders, furniture manufacturers are their major target.

  • Mansions begging for occupants

    Mansions begging for occupants

    •Landlords overprice properties in Abuja

    It is widely believed that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) lacks enough accommodation for its teeming population. But, surprisingly, Nduka Chiejina discovers that the city has many overpriced estates that are begging for tenants.

     

    The Abuja landscape is dotted with state-of-the-art buildings that are unoccupied. These buildings are found mainly in Maitama, Asokoro, Katampe Extension and Wuse Two.

    The history of unoccupied buildings dates back to the military era when some wealthy Nigerians and foreigners with connections to influential government figures acquired plots of land, developed and stayed in them. But, when they lost power and influence, they moved out of Abuja or tried to sell the property.

    It is being alleged that most completed but unoccupied buildings belong to some people who illegally acquired huge wealth and cannot defend the sources. They include politicians and senior government officials accused of looting the treasury, who resorted to either buying property with their loots or simply acquiring new plots and developing them.

    Many of such houses have remained unoccupied because the owners have placed them in the market at exorbitant rates and out of the reach of honest citizens with genuine interest to stay in such houses.

    The Abuja city, referred to as the Federal Capital City (FCC) in the masterplan, has become a veritable ground for money launderers and suspected treasury looters and their desire to maintain a very high taste, in the absence of legitimate income, has left them with the option of demanding very high rents on their property.

    Since most people cannot afford the tastefully finished houses, they are left largely unoccupied.

    At the popular Area 11 junction, there is a massive estate, which people allege belongs to a former Head of State. The estate though has some tenants, many of the flats have remained unoccupied because of the high rent.

    In Wuse Zone One, a large complex of apartments belonging to a famous business mogul from the Northwest, has been in the hands of squatters for almost 10 years and there appears to be nothing the businessman can do to change the situation. In fact, the squatters have partitioned the flats and are sub-letting portions of their flats to other ‘tenants.

    In recent times, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) had warned that it would levy ground rents on unoccupied buildings to force the owners to put the buildings up for rent, instead of having unoccupied buildings dotting the landscape, with their attendant risks; they could be flash points or hideouts for criminals.

    Investigations showed that except where the landlord has a human face, it is virtually impossible to get a room and parlour for less than N450,000 per annum; and the more the number of rooms, the higher the price. There is no three-bedroom flat in the FCC that goes for less than N1.2 million per annum. Some landlords, agents and estate managers and valuers have cultivated the habit of demanding two years’ rent from prospective tenants.

    In the satellite towns, because the demand far outstrips the supply, many owners and agents have resorted to demanding one-and -a-half or two years’ upfront payment from new tenants.

    Another reason for the preponderance of unoccupied buildings in Abuja is the greed of registered and unregistered estate agents/valuers and developers. The tradition in the city is for estate agents and valuers to inflate the prices of properties in their care, most times without the knowledge of the owners.

    The districts that have the most number of unoccupied buildings are Maitama and Asokoro. There, the owners are former government officials and some rich Nigerians and individuals of questionable character. The owners have been known to hand the buildings over to estate agents at a reasonable rate, but the greed of the agents have resulted to the buildings remaining in the market for years and, eventually, falling to ruins because the agents refuse to give them out at the rate the owners have instructed them.

    It is difficult to see the owners of many houses in Abuja as agents in charge will not arrange a meeting between them and potential tenants.

    These developments have led to a glut of houses in the FCC and many Nigerians are only waiting for the day something would happen to force a burst in the real estate market in Abuja, thus bringing down the prices of houses.

    The wait may be long, but the fact remains that many buildings in Abuja City are wasting away while many Nigerians with genuine need for shelter are either forced to cough out large sums of money as rents, or they shelter in the satellite towns all of which are over crowded and lack basic amenities and infrastructure compared to the FCC.

    The indomitable spirit of Nigerians can also be seen at play where some of these unoccupied houses have been taken over by illegal squatters who neither pay rent nor attempt to carry out repairs on the buildings when the need arises.

    It is being envisaged that Abuja development may result in a property rate crash, the type that happened in the United States that reverberated as the global economic crunch.

    However, the effect of it, if indeed it happens in Nigeria would be different, because most of the property owners are looters who are privately funded.

    The effect of such a development would weigh more on the owners who will lose substantial part of their investment, rather than a national economic collapse, which resulted in the the in the early 2000s,

    Gwarimpa district was noted for the high number of squatters occupying the government buildings, but when most of buildings changed hands many of the squatters were ejected from the FHA and now Gwarimpa has lost the tag of ‘squatters’ settlement.

    The unoccupied building syndrome is not restricted to residential properties alone, many commercial buildings equally litter the city with vacant shopping and office spaces being more in number than those in business.