The Nation Newspaper

Category: Building & Properties

  • Atican Beach Estate ups the ante in home delivery

    As the housing deficit in the country persists, the built environment is being inundated with more builders and developers.

    While some offer sight and service, others build and sell houses and apartments; yet for others, it is a combination of both.

    In this situation, there has been complaints of quality of the houses being put up for sale by developers, including the outrageous prices placed on them, making it difficult for people who really need the houses to afford them.  Concerned about this development, a property firm in Lagos says it is upping the ante in property delivery.

    The Marketing Director, Atican Beachview Estate, Mr. Rilwan Atiku, said his firm, Atican Nigeria Limited, which started  the  construction of its pilot estate in 2015, has completed its first phase  – the Atican Beachview Estate.

    Atiku said the motivation for entering into the market was because many people had complained about the less attractive houses being showcased in the industry.

    “People are building, so we needed to build homes for people, not houses. What other real estate companies are doing mostly is to build houses, which they can’t live in. But, we build homes at Atican Nigeria Limited. So, that is why we entered into the property market,” Atiku explained.

    The Atican Beachview Estate is a serene estate built on 4.3 hectares  and located within the Lekki Scheme II in Lagos. The offerings range from four bedroom fully detached house to three bedroom terrace house.

    The four bedroom fully detached house are built on a space of 300 square meters (sqm). Its features includes four large en suite bedrooms, two living room, large kitchen space and store, one boys quarters, parking space for five cars, and a beautiful balcony view

    The four and five bedroom semi-detached house option also has the features like the fully detached. However, it boasts of a parking lots capacity for seven cars, as it sits on a land space of between 320 and 330 sqm. Also is the four bedroom duplex, having the same features.

    For those with smaller family size, Atican Beachview estate also provides quality homes in the form of three bedroom terrace house, sitting on a land space of 180-200 sqm. In this category also is the Comoact three bedroom duplex with features which includes three compact en suite bedrooms; one living room, moderate kitchen space and store; one boys quarters; parking space for three cars. These houses go for between N35 million and N50 million.

    “Ventilation is very key to us. Unlike other developers, we try not to use up all the space on the land. So, at least, if you have a 300sqm land, we only build on around 200 out of it and leave 100 for other essentials that would be on the land. That is what we mostly do,” the marketing manager explained

    Atiku explained that all the buildings come with beautiful balcony which owners can relax in and enjoy the cool breeze from the Okun-Ajah beach, lying a few meters away from the estate. Besides, he explained that a home owner in the estate becomes an automatic member of the Atican Beach exclusive club, with free access to the facilities at the beach at any time; this comes at no extra cost.

    “From this place, you get fresh air from the ocean. That is good for your soul. That is why we built it to make sure that the people that can live longer. We do our own part to add to their years,” Atiku said

    Besides, he said the houses are also available in carcass form, giving room for the buyer to finish the house to his own taste. At present, the promoters of this estate said there were plans to facilitate mortgage for owners by introducing prospective buyers to some banks willing to partner  them on the project.

    Interestingly, land is also available in this estate- at 600 sqm and 300 sqm for all forms of building construction at between N15 million and N20 million. However, a buyer will have to conform to the approved exterior design provided by the promoters to achieve uniformity. He will also have to abide with the approved quality of structures by the team of engineers of the firm.

  • Fed Govt to rehabilitate Kastina roads

    The Federal Controller of Works for Katsina State, Tunde Balogun, an engineer, has assured motorists that rehabilitation of  federal roads in the state would soon start.

    This is coming on the heels of the submission of proposals for the repairs for their capture in the ministry’s budget

    Balogun, who gave the assurance  in Katsina, during a chat with The Nation in his office, said already the dualisation of the Kano-Katsina federal highway was in progress and that work on the Katsina border end of the road, which was awarded to Chinese firm, CCECC, was also ongoing.

    He said: “The state government is taking charge of internal roads within the state capital or local government headquarters, like the Kano road in  Malumfashi and the bye-pass. It is the Katsina State government that has been maintaining that intersecting roads within the town.’’ He revealed that road maintenance remains the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency’s  (FERMA) responsibility, while rehabilitation of major highways, especially when it stretches to eight kilometre and beyond.

    According to Balogun, there is much improvement on road funding under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari compared to the past, hence the reason for the rehabilitation and construction of federal roads.

    On his assessment of the condition of federal roads in the state, the controller said it is fair, when compared to what obtains in some other states. He identified other federal roads being captured in the proposals to include; Katsina-Dutsinma-Kankara road, Katsina-Jibia road and Daura-Kano road.

    Meanwhile, FERMA has assured motorists plying Funtua-Bakori-Katsina roads that the patching of the potholes on the road had not been abandoned as being insinuated, and that work would resume on the road as soon as the rainy season is over.

    FERMA Resident Engineer in Katsina State, Ali Abdul, told The Nation, that the road was being handled under direct labour and supervised by one of their workers.

     

  • Stakeholders urged to adopt technology to tackle climate change

    To tackle the challenges  of climate change, stakeholders in the environment sector have been admonished to deploy the use of technology.

    The admonition came from discussants at the workshop on the National Inception Workshop on Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Abuja.

    The Regional Climate Change Coordinator of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Dr. Richard Munang, noted that Nigeria could address climate change across the entire continent.

    According to him, the mitigation of climate change in Africa is no finance alone, but that the continent has not paid attention to build peoples’ capacity. He, therefore, implored stakeholders  to combat climate change in their  locations by using home-made approaches.

    A representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Dr. Reuben Bamidele, emphasised the need for  monitoring and evaluation of climate change. He assured of UNIDO’s readiness and availability to provide support to the country during the TNA process.

    Minister of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, challenged stakeholders to move with the rest of the world by leveraging  technology to mitigate climate change and its effects.

    He warned that climate change was real and that the effects were visible not only in Nigeria but across the world. Among the effects, he explained, were the drying up of the Chad Basin, desertification, rise in sea level, coastal encroachment.

    Onu, therefore, urged Africans to take a cue from China and Israel, whom he said have leveraged  science and technology to combat climate change and create jobs in their countries.

    ”The problems of climate change are not just economical but also a social problem too. We should not be afraid of the existence of climate change; the challenge for us is our inability to use science and technology to mitigate it,” he said.

    The Director, Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Peter Tarfa, represented by a Principal Scientific Officer in the Ministry, Mr. Chukwuemeka Okebugwu, said the ministry was working with her counterparts in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and other related MDAs to work out solutions and ensure that the country is enabled to solve many problems associated with climate change.

    “This Technology Needs Assessment is critical to help us develop a roadmap and work with the appropriate knowledge needed to combat climate change in Nigeria,” he said.

    The workshop was attended by stakeholders, who were saddled with providing solutions that would combat climate change and other related environmental and social challenges that might arise from it.

  • Experts chart course for virile industry

    Experts, stakeholders and professionals in the built environment and related industries have met in Lagos to chart a new course for the sector.

    It was at the seventh edition of this year’s Real Estate Unite Summit, a yearly event organised by 3INVEST, tagged “The conversation summit,”at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island.

    The event brought together developers, suppliers, service providers, investors, home buyers and occupiers. It  featured presentations, panel discussions, exhibitions and award to 30  investors in the sector.

    The event convener and Chief Executive of 3Invest, Mrs. Ruth Obih-Obuah, noted that the industry remains the most transformative sector and one of the most effective areas for poverty alleviation and job creation.

    She is confident that if adequately structured, the sector could fast-track growth and development, adding that it could generate massive employment.

    But to achieve this, Mrs Obih-Obuah  spoke of the need to track the economic dynamism and advocate policies that will address the many challenges of the sector from reaching its full of potential.

    The Chief Executive Officer, Palton Morgan Holdings, Adesope Adeyinka, contended that policy somersault of government had become an impediment to successful public-private partnership (PPP) programme in the real estate sector. The model, he explained, is an ideal platform for the country to capitalise on considering that private sector funding is very important for infrastructural development.

    To this end, Adeyinka said it was time that the PPP framework properly articulated to make it a viable option for funding housing projects.

    The Managing Director, Urban Shelter Limited, Saadiya Aliyu, shared Adeyinka’s views. She called for social housing scheme that would cater for the housing needs of people in the informal sector.

    She noted that the 17 million housing needs in Nigeria is mind boggling, hence, the need to put in place a new model that is transparent. This should be by government in partnership with private sector.

    The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Lands Bureau,  Olabode Agoro, restated the commitment of the state government in easing the process of land titles in the state, a consideration that led to the introduction of fully computerised and secure process for issuing Certificates of Occupancy.

    Agoro said that the state government is aware of the challenges many home owners are going through in getting approvals for their land titles and Certificate of Occupancy, assuring that the government was working hard to address the tide. On a monthly basis, the Permanent Secretary disclosed that over 500 applications are received from prospective property owners.

    He said the ministry is scanning millions of documents of approved Land titles to an online portal which would aid the application for land titles and Certificate of Occupancy from the comfort of an applicant’s home.

    “You can apply, pay and within 30 days of your application, your approval will be ready. lt became essential to move in line with modern technology and to put in place new and better ways of doing things in order to improve service delivery,” he explained.

    Although he took a swipe at developers who are in the habit of getting land to build estates but end up selling them in plots at an exorbitant prices to customers. “We used to give developers in the past 45 hectares to build their estates, but some of them will abandon the land even when they know that the Land Use Act compel them to developed the land within two years and if not the land can be taken over by the state government,” Agoro explained.

    He noted that what is more worrisome is that some developers acquire land from the government and leave it for some time so it could appreciate, and they would then begin to sell. This, he said, is against the agreement they have with the government when they acquire those lands.

    “We are coming after developers who have been given land by the state government but refuse to do anything on the land after two years of acquisition. We have fewer lands and we will come after them,” he said.

    Over the last seven years, the summit has become an avenue for stakeholders in the industry to engage in discussions on issues in the sector and to discuss new developments to unlock some these bottlenecks stifling the real estate sector.

  • Nigeria celebrates World Clean-up Day

    Nigeria, at the weekend, joined over 150 countries to mark this year’s World Clean up Day. At  the event in Lagos, the team leader for World Clean-up Day in Nigeria, Mr. Olumide Coker, said the campaign to clean up the whole world is an opportunity to increase waste entrepreneurs and employment in waste collection, recycling and composting.

    According him, it is better to see waste as resources and reduce government spending on waste management at dumpsite as waste can be recycled to different products for human use.

    “This initiative should give a good basis for government to enforce enabling laws on the environment to guide against abuse of waste and also provide opportunities for entrepreneurs who can convert waste to economic activities to boost our Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” says Heidi Solba, one of the leaders of the ‘Let’s Do It!’ movement and part of the World Cleanup Day organising team.

    Coker disclosed that while cleaning beaches and public areas sounds like something that has been done before, the organisation’s mission surpasses just cleaning up but to stop the problem once and for all. He noted that humans are the only species who have managed to generate waste, which he said cannot be used by the rest of the ecosystem. For instance, he explained that 80 percent of the plastic that floats today in the oceans come from land, hence the need to start working hand-in-hand with local communities.

    He added that the movement supports and connects a new generation of community leaders – ready to act together to find lasting solutions for the global waste problem.

  • MORE Academy set to recognise industry best practice

    As part of her commitment to foster rapid development in the housing sector, Mortgage and Real Estate Academy (MORE) Academy, a public private partnership between the Centre for Management Development, a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning and Western Atlantic Corporation Limited, is set to host her “First Award of Excellence” for practitioners and professionals in Nigerian Mortgage and Real Estate industry. The event will take place on October 19, 2018.

    The award, according to the Chairman of MORE Academy, Dr. Adejuwon Akinfolurin, is conceptualised to encourage healthy competition and drive for quality housing delivery to meet the huge shortfall in the country’s housing supply need.

    “The country has been facing serious residential housing deficit which is affecting the quality of life and living standard in Nigeria. The Buhari administration has been doing a lot to encourage stakeholders in the industry to enhance their capacity to produce more affordable housing for the populace in order to cut the shortfall. There has also been a lot of improvement in the recent years in the types, quality as well as innovative standards occasioned by technology to deliver better quality housing for Nigerians. As a  support service institution which has a major responsibility to provide the  needed capacity building for the industry, MORE ACADEMY has come up with the first award of excellence for the year to also encourage and promote healthy competition among stakeholders and provide a platform that will motivate  them to  do more for the industry,” Akinfolurin explained.

    According to him, MORE ACADEMY is not just giving out awards, but will also produce for the industry a compendium to celebrate the entire industry. “Our efforts are geared towards providing more opportunities for industry stakeholders to excel and also take advantage of opportunities provided by the institution to train their employees as well as professionals in the Mortgage and Real Estate industry in order to avail themselves of the world class training modules offered by our academy,” he said.

    While assuring that the award will reflect excellence, Akinfolurin said,  “in order to get the best in each category of awards, we have our team of experts who have been working in the past nine months to identify the organisations and State Governments that could be penciled down for the various categories of awards. The list is undergoing extensive critical review by our corporate board before we finally pass them to the Award committee to decide the finalist as well as the runner-ups. Our award committee members are people of impeccable characters who possess deep knowledge of the industry. We can assure you of impartial selection in all categories.’’

    Dignitaries expected at the awards include captains of Mortgage and Real Estate industry players, Heads of Government Parastatals, State Governors, Chief Executive Officers of several Primary Mortgage Institutions, Minister of Housing and the Honorable Minister of Budget and Planning.

  • Countries inch forward on Paris Agreement implementation

    Amid growing calls for urgent and strong climate change action, the supplementary Bangkok Climate Change Talks has closed, with uneven progress on the guidelines that will tell the world how to implement the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The implementation guidelines are needed to unlock practical climate action across the globe.

    The guidelines have been under negotiation since 2016 and are set to be adopted at the yearly climate change conference, COP24, to be held in Katowice, Poland in December.

    “In Bangkok, there has been uneven progress on the elements of the climate change regime that countries are working towards,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change. This underlines the urgent need for continuing work in the coming weeks,” she added.

    The Paris Agreement’s provisions that countries are working towards operationalising include increased action to deal with the impacts of climate change and increased and transparent support for developing country action in the form of finance, technology cooperation and capacity-building.

    Other provisions include goal of limiting global temperature increase this century to well below 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C through transparent and ambitious emission reductions.

    “In preparation for COP24, it will be critical to achieve balance across all issues. This is important because all parts of the regime need to function together in an inter-connected manner,” Ms. Espinosa underlined.

    Countries have been grappling with how to reflect the contributions and responsibilities of developed and developing countries given their different national circumstances.

  • Waste managers accuse Lagos Govt of neglect

    The Vice Chairman of the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAM), Lagos Chapter, Mr. David Oriyomi, has accused the state government of abandoning them, saying it has thrown some of its members out of business. Over 25, 000 jobs are threatened, he said.

    In an interactive session with the media at the AWAM secretariat, Oriyomi recalled that in 2016, the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) was introduced with the intention of a foreign company, Visionscape, taking over the residential waste collection from 350  indigenous businesses. This, he explained, shocked the PSP operators as there was no consultation whatsoever with them

    Besides, he noted that the policy, if implemented, it would have resulted in massive business closure, leading to majority of the PSP operators’ over 25,000 employees losing their jobs.

    “We made frantic efforts to see and appeal to His Excellency, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, but to no avail,” Oriyomi said, adding that this led to the litigation by the PSP to protect their investments.

    The PSP, he said, was irked that after various false starts dates by the government and the concessionaire, the initiative was launched by placing bins indiscriminately across the state, with very little provision to evacuate the heaps of waste.

    The situation, Oriyomi claimed, is responsible for the increase in the volume of waste on the highways and medians.

    “Our city was returned to pre-1999 era and the once celebrated clean city has now become one of the dirtiest cities in the World,” he said.

    More annoying, he said, is that Visionscape offered their job back to them as a sub-contractor, with uneconomically and unsustainable terms. “This was outrightly rejected by us as we considered it to be economic slavery. Visionscape used arm-twisting techniques to engage a few of our members,” Oriyomi lamented.

    He said his members appealed to the government, the House of Assembly, Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and finally to the leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.  This culminated in the April 27, 2018, protest by the PSP to Tinubu’s residence, where he urged the association members to remain peaceful.

    “Tinubu promised to consult with the party chiefs, the House of Assembly and the governor, with the view to resolving this matter and restoring our job which will, in turn, result in better environment. We assured him that upon restoration and addressing the major issue of the dumpsites we are committed to the restoration of our state. We left with revitalised hope to clean up our city, but sadly, it has been five months after Asiwaju’s intervention and the uncertainty still persist,” Oriyomi said.

  • AG Mortgage Bank boosts housing stock in Enugu

    AG Mortgage Bank Plc., a Primary Mortgage Bank in the country, has enabled no fewer than 89 subscribers in Enugu to become home owners under the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) National Housing Fund (NHF) Scheme designed to promote home ownership across the country.

    The keys to the houses, according to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer , AG Mortgage Bank Plc, Mr.  Ngozi Anyogu, were delivered to the happy home owners recently in Enugu.

    According to the Chief Executive Officer, the houses were developed by the COPEN group, a reputable property development company with projects across the country.

    All the houses are within the Jedidiah Gardens Enugu which provides a good ambience for home owners

    AG Mortgage Bank “is an active operator of the NHF Scheme, and has disbursed in excess of N3 billion to over 390 NHF beneficiaries” he said.

    Access to mortgage loan under the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria – National Housing Fund Scheme, according to the Chief Executive is open to all Nigerians with verifiable stream of income who are contributors to the NHF scheme.

    Anyogu urged Nigerians in all spheres of endeavour to take advantage of FMBN/NHF scheme and AG Mortgage Bank’s other mortgage products namely: The Tenant – Owner -Mortgage (TOM); a rent to own programme, Leap Into Mortgage (LIMO) product, an incremental mortgage arrangement, that fits home buyers at different income levels.

  • NGO to construct public toilets in Ekiti

    Bread of Life Development Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, has concluded plans to construct model public toilets in 14 small towns in Ekiti West and Gbonyin Local Governments, Ekiti State, between October 2018 and May 2019

    The project titled: Farewell to Open Defecation, is being implemented under the civil society grant component of the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme Phase Three (WSSSRP) III, financed by the European Union in Ekiti, Plateau, and Adamawa states.

    According to statistics, Ekiti State has a safe sanitation coverage of 32 percent in rural and small towns, and 38 percent in urban towns. Open defecation, which accounts for 68 percent, is the highest in the south west of the country, according to State Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) policy.

    In Gbonyin Local Government Area, a UNICEF 2014 survey, shows that 92 percent of the communities are without public latrines; and in Ekiti West Local Government Area, 124 communities do not have any form of public latrines according to the Ekiti West WASH profile, 2014 report.

    ‘Farewell to Open Defecation’ will reduce open defecation in Ekiti State and its associated health effects; generally increase living standards; improve economic livelihoods through jobs and income creations; reduce economic losses due to incidences of diseases caused by poor sanitation and safe water; and result in safe sanitation behaviours, and safe hygiene practices in 14 small towns in Gbonyin and  Ekiti West LGAs, Ekiti State.

    The overall objective of the project is to strengthen  water and sanitation (WASH) governance institutions; increase prioritisation and funding of WASH  sector by public and non-public actors; and  increase access to sustainably managed, safe Sanitation WASH facilities  in 14 Small towns in Gbonyin and Ekiti West Local Government Areas (LGAs), Ekiti State.

    The scheme is a WASH governance and service provision project, mobilising stakeholders for effective WASH management, and sustainably increasing access to safe WASH services through construction of  Sanitation Demonstration Units (SDUs) in 14 Small towns, Gbonyin and Ekiti West Local Government Areas (LGAs), Ekiti State.

    The project will result in the construction of modern public toilets in 14 small towns in Ekiti State between October 2018 and May, 2019. The benefitting towns are Iluomoba, Agbado, Egbe,  Imesi, Ijan,  Aisegba, and Ode in Gbonyin LGA; and   Erio, Ido-Ile, Ipole-Iloro, Aramoko, Oke Imesi, Erinjinyan and Ikogosi in Ekiti West LGA

    The public toilets also known as integrated Sanitation Demonstration Units (SDUs) will be constructed in either a motor park, bus stop, garage, or market place; and comprise two blocks of three compartment pour flush toilet, urinals, handwashing facilities, bathing room, laundry, car wash, a sani centre,  solar powered motorised borehole, and three prepaid meter public water standpoints.

    The project will also support the sanitation task groups  in the two councils to discuss and address WASH governance issues particularly policy, regulatory, legal, institutional, and financial framework for accelerated access to safe sanitation; facilitate several media based high level advocacy to key public and non-public service providers towards prioritising sanitation and mobilising financial resources for safe sanitation  in the two LGAs; support the two LGAs Sanitation Task Groups to organise WASH public enlightenment  meetings quarterly; and mobilise community leaders in the LGAs on strategies of accelerating safe sanitation and hygiene practices in the 14 small towns.

    The constructed public toilets will be handed over to Public Toilet Management Committee (PTMC) for sustainable management, while private operators will be locally recruited to  operate and maintain the public toilets through public contracts. The public toilets will be operated using a business model, and revenues realised from user charges will be deposited in a Sanitation Revolving Fund, which is a financing mechanism for development of sanitation infrastructure in the small towns, at household and institutional levels.