The Nation Newspaper

Category: Building & Properties

  • Homework to develop luxury homes

    A real estate firm Homework Development and Properties Limited has started work at one of its new mini-estates.

    The estate, Dunvale Court, is in Lekki, Lagos. It consists of four units of four-bedroom semi-detached house; 19 units of four-bedroom terrace house; and 12 units of three bedroom terrace house.

    Also, it contains a cluster of eight units of two bedroom flats and eight units of one bedroom/studio flats with car parks.

    Homework Development and Properties Limited Director Mr. Jide Adekola assured that the mini-estate would feature innovative architectural designs.

    “It will be spacious, cozy and located on a land mass of over 7,133 square metres. It is tailored to cater to the upwardly-mobile family lifestyle fit for investment and features family-friendly facilities like a gym, garden, playground, swimming pool, central water supply and central sewage, among others,” he revealed.

    The estate will be secured with a three-gate security point, CCTV surveillance to boost security, treated water and a minimum of 18 hours guaranteed power supply, he added.

    Explaining the payment options, Adekola said subscribers could make 40 percent advance payment and spread the balance over 12 months.

    The price ranges from N15 million to N48 million. He said the firm was driven by the passion to create world-class estates, and quality service delivering to its clients.

  • Stakeholders hail underwriting standards for informal sector

    Stakeholders hail underwriting standards for informal sector

    •Document targets 58% of sector

    Stakeholders have hailed the new underwriting standards for mortgage in the informal sector.

    The standards, launched in Lagos, is a key component of the National Housing Finance Programme (NHFP) of the Federal Government aimed at empowering Nigerians in the sector to own a house. It comes under the My Own Home scheme.

    The scheme, stakeholders agreed, would create a uniform standard for disbursement of mortgage loans to intending house owners in the informal sector.

    With this programme, the mortgage market would be positioned to capture 58 per cent of those in the informal sector.

    After the launch at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Lagos office, the Executive Director, Business Development and Portfolio Management of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Umar Abdulahi, said the initiative was timely and has the capacity of bringing in the largely-uncaptured population in the informal sector of the housing market. He praised the document for being “all encompassing”.

    “The informal sector constitutes a large market that had not been explored. We have a large market in the sector but we need social inclusiveness in the area of housing. The law is that anyone who earns up to N3,000 and above is entitled to mortgage loan but a lot of people, especially outside the formal sector, are not benefiting. Now this underwriting standard will ensure they benefit,” he said.

    Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) Managing Director Prof. Charles Inyangete, represented by NMRC’s Head of Business Development Mrs Dorothy Obata, said about 70 per cent of home seekers in the informal sector are not captured in the mortgage market. She described them as “middle income earners who did not have structures”.

    “This is a welcomed development in comparison to what we had before which was the formal sector uniform underwriting standard. The uniform writing standard for the informal sector will be a big catalyst for intending house owners,” she said.

    Similarly, Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN) President Mr. Niyi Akinlusi sees the initiative as a game-changer in housing.

    He regretted that the informal sector, which was contributing  about 60 per cent to the national gross domestic product (GDP), has been neglected for long, especially in housing.

    “It is time for us to start working and bring into the housing market, the mortgage market, to serve as a bridge for many people to  own their  house.

    According to him, Nigerians desirous of owning homes can now be assured of having a shoulder to lean on to make their dreams come true. MBAN, he emphasised, has put in place strategies for the 34 mortgage institutions across the country to capture a larger percentage of the informal sector in the home ownership net. This, ultimately, would reduce the housing deficit in the nation.

    Akinlusi said the launch represented a new dawn for players in the informal sector who hitherto had no access to mortgage. Besides, he is particularly pleased that stringent collateral like certificate of occupancy has been removed from the conditions of getting a mortgage.

    Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) Special Insured Institutions Director Mr. Joshua Etupidiok said the corporation, ahead of the initiative, developed an insurance product for the non-interest primary mortgage institutions (PMIs). This is, because, the informal sector has a huge market for mortgage, he said.

    NHFP Head of the CBN Mr. Adedeji Adesemoye said the  document would give those without  salaries access to mortgage loan for their housing needs. He said this would nip in the bud problems affecting access to mortgage by the informal sector.

    He assured that in the next six months, the CBN would evaluate the number of mortgages in the sector.

    Adesemoye said stakeholders were also developing underwriting standards for the non-interest primary mortgage banks and groups, adding that this would be launched between next month and April.

    Stakeholders were convinced that the mortgage law would capture the self-employed and business owners in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

    Some of the issues in the standards are property and borrower eligibility, credit worthiness, loan tenor, repayment structure, property title, required security, insurance, and mortgage counseling, among others.

    The underwriting standard is an initiative of the CBN, MBAN, the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company, FMBN, and the NDIC.

    NHFP Consultant on Housing and Mortgage, Mrs Adenike Fasanya-Osilaja, said the event was important because there was the need for a policy to drive the initiative.

    She said the underwriters had been trained to use “common sense” to determine good borrowers.

    “We are also going to be telling the populace that you must not work in an office to have access to home ownership,” she said.

    She said measures were in place to ensure borrowers in the informal sector met their loan obligations.

  • Why buildings collapse, by SON, Lafarge, others

    Why buildings collapse, by SON, Lafarge, others

    Building construction experts from Lafarge Africa Plc, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and others in the housing industry have said the engagement of non-professionals and artisans in the construction of buildings is responsible for building collapse.

    They spoke in Abuja at a stakeholders’ forum organised by SON for the Northcentral Zone.

    The Technical Services Manager of Lafarge Africa Plc, Bukola Adebisi, an engineer, said the quacks lack ed the training and expertise to execute building projects without supervision.

    This reason, he explained, was why the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN)  partnered some stakeholders, including his firm, to produce a concrete mix manual that will serve as a guide in the production of concrete. The  manual is the first of its kind in the industry.

    SON’s Head of Product Authentication Usman Mohammed, who  represented the director-general, said the use of sub-standard building materials was another major factor responsible for building collapse.

    He called on stakeholders in the  sector to eradicate sub-standard products.

    To ensure that only building engineers work on construction projects, COREN has an Engineering Regulation and Monitoring Unit, which monitors construction project, its Registrar, Kamila Maliki, said.

    He added that the five engineers involved in 27 buildings collapses  between 2016 and last year had been sanctioned by the body.

  • Ogun compensates 232 Igbesa residents

    In preparation for the commencement of construction on the 10-kilometre Lusada-Igbesa Road, the Ogun State Government has compensated owners of 232 structures affected by the project.

    Speaking on the occasion held at Salvation Army Primary School, Igbesa, the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Olamilekan Adegbite, an architect, said this was the first time since 2011 that compensation would be brought to the community of the beneficiaries.

    “The state government, in its magnanimity, has decided to bring this compensation to Igbesa to ease the difficulty the beneficiaries might encounter, if they come to Abeokuta to collect their bank drafts,’’ he said

    The Commissioner, through his media aide, Mr. Temidayo Agida, hinted that the road, which would be completed between six and eight months would enhance accessibility and improve the livelihood of the people of the area.

    He implored residents to cooperate with the contractors to ensure the speedy completion of the project.

    One of the recipients, Mr. Imonite Lucky, expressed gratitude to the government for the gesture of coming to pay compensation at the loan.

    He said the project would bring development to the town.

  • WUF: Making urban spaces more climate-resilient

    The Ninth World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has ended with a call on people to use the new urban agenda as an accelerator to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and support climate action.

    According to the United Nations (UN), the world’s urban population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion by 2050, with over 90 per cent of this taking place in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

    This presents an opportunity to re-define urban development, including inventing liveable, low-carbon and resilient cities.

    Experts at the meeting recognised  that climate change would exacerbate the vulnerability of human settlements to natural and man-made hazards globally. This would especially be the case in developing countries, coastal and delta regions, and Small Island Developing States, they added.

    Adapting to climate change in human settlements is critical to ensuring that human development is not jeopardised and the growing population has the opportunity to thrive, the experts said.

    The Paris Agreement provides a framework for global climate action, engaging both national and local governments, including in least developed countries and secondary cities to take action.

    Over 2500 cities reported their commitments to both mitigation and adaptation on the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) platform, showing that many cities are already taking climate action, including in Africa and Asia.

    Countries can build resilience and enable adaptation in human settlements through national adaptation through the process to formulate and implement national adaptation plans (NAPs), including, linking national and local adaptation planning, and supporting local governments’ role in planning and implementing adaptation in human settlements.

    NAPs provide an opportunity to emphasise human settlements in national adaptation strategies, and foster further adaptation action by local governments in cities, towns and villages of all sizes.

    One of the key findings of an upcoming report by UN Climate Change on Adaptation and human settlements will be that national governments have a crucial role in enabling subnational governments to plan and implement adaptation action, and in providing adequate resources to do so. This report will inform climate negotiations in May this year.

    And the Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogue launch provides further opportunities to advance and institutionalise multilevel governance on climate action, to ensure coordinated action across all levels of government.

    So-called “Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues’’ will be facilitated by ICLEI -Local Governments for Sustainability with Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and UN-Habitat as special partners.

     

    • Culled from EnviroNews

  • Four architects lose suit to dissolve ARCON

    Four members of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) have failed to get court’s order to dissolve the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON).

    The suit, instituted by Tonye Braide, Abimbola Ajayi, David Majekodunmi and Dike Emmanuel against ARCON, sought, among others, a legal pronouncement that ARCON had  been dissolved.

    The court, however, ruled otherwise, noting that the case lacked merit. The presiding judge, Justice Hadiza Shagari, of a Federal High Court, Lagos, consequently the dismissed case.

    The plaintiffs, Braide is NIA immediate past president; Ajayi (General Secretary); Majekodunmi, (Chairman, Students Affairs Committee) and Emmanuel, (Chairman, International Affairs Committee) in the last executive of the professional group.

    Trouble started when they challenged ARCON over the conduct of professional exams. While ARCON said it directed the NIA not to conduct professional exams, the NIA turned down the directive, and  held the exam. To assert its regulatory authority, ARCON, citing some ‘inadequacies’ in the process leading to the conduct of the examination, declined to register those adjudged to have passed the controversial examination.

    However, the plaintiffs claimed that trouble started between the former NIA executive members and the regulators in 2015, following the latter’s decision to conduct exams on professional practice for architects who wanted to register with ARCON – a position NIA frowned at, maintaining that such action ran contrary to the Act establishing ARCON.

    The four, armed with an alleged circular dated July 16, 2015, from the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government, which purportedly dissolved ARCON, went to court challenging the position of the regulator.

    Justice Shagari, after reviewing the submissions of counsel, held that the plaintiffs did not show or present to the court sufficient evidence that the contested circular of the Federal Government affected ARCON in its statutory functions in any way.

    “A careful examination of the said circular does not capture ARCON and therefore, it is without doubt to say that the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs in this application did not succeed on the grounds that the defendants according to part C of Companies and Allied Matter Act 2004 (CAMA) are professionals, which regulate the affairs of all its registered members,” the judge ruled, adding that if the circular of July 16, 2015, did not affect the defendants, then, any action taken by ARCON couldn’t be seen as ultra vires or void.

    “I, therefore, uphold the submission of the defendants’ counsel and hold that the Federal Government of Nigeria circular dated 16th July 2015 did not dissolve the defendants, as they are not appointed by the government of Nigeria. This originating summons is dismissed for lack of merit,” Justice Shagari ruled.

    NIA President, Adibe Njoku, said  the plaintiffs in the case went to court in their capacity and not on behalf of the NIA.

    This, Njoku explained, meant that the NIA had nothing to do with the suit, as there was no time the Council of the NIA okayed the siut against ARCON.

  • Access Bank partners Taraba on housing

    The Managing Director of Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, has said the bank will collaborate with the Taraba State government in the provision of housing, infrastructure and poverty alleviation.

    Wigwe made this known during his visit earlier in the week to Governor Darius Ishaku in Jalingo, the state capital. He said that in a couple of months, the bank will build between 200 and 500 housing units for the state’s civil servants in a couple of months.

    “The houses will be cheap, with low interest rate, and affordable. It is necessary that civil servants should be able able to peacefully plan their retirement,” the bank chieftain noted.

    He also stated that Access Bank will also invest in infrastructural development in Taraba, with focus on road construction.

    “We shall work with the Taraba State government in providing the appropriate structures, for contractors to do the work.

    “The third area is to provide general welfare for the civil servants, by providing them loans to be able to pay their children’s school fees, buy cars and improve their living condition.

    “By doing that, we shall be investing in the educational sector of the state too. Already, we are working with the World Bank on that.”

    Governor Ishaku said with the visit of one of the five top commercial banks in the country, something good was about to happen to the state.

    “With the coming of Access Bank, Taraba has begun to rise; it is good news to us.

    “With the support of Access Bank, we are going to tear all the roads in the state and make them admirable by all.

    “We shall also make housing available and affordable to all our civil servants, to avoid them the temptation of graft in office, so that they will enjoy their homes during retirement,” Ishaku said.

  • NMRC to stimulate mortgage market for housing affordability

    For the country to attain housing sufficiency, there is the need for the construction of affordable houses and access to adequate funding that will make cheaper mortgages possible. This is because affordability is critical in the quest of citizens to own personal homes.

    The difficulty in housing affordability, which boils down to financial capacity, has been further accentuated by the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHFA). The body noted that for an organised developer to build a house in Nigeria, the cost comes to $28,000 or N10.08 million (at N360/$1). This means that only about 9.7 per cent of urban households in the country can afford the cheapest house.

    The Managing Director, Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), Prof. Charles Inyangete, agreed. He explained that the situation has been compounded because of the barriers in the housing sector.

    “They are such that before you own your own home, you have to pay in the region of 34.5 per cent in Governor’s Consent, bank charges and so on. This is aside the 20 per cent you have to deposit if you are taking mortgage, which makes the whole process unaffordable. So, even if you were looking to buying a N10 million house, you have to find half the price to receive your keys because of these charges,” he said, adding that this has made home ownership one of the most difficult things for an average Nigerian to achieve; hence, the need to tackle the problem of affordability.

    According to the NMRC boss, one of the key components that must be addressed is housing policy for first-time homeowners, which is the norm in developed countries, where first-time homeowner are supported.

    He is convinced that if easy homeownership becomes a reality in Nigeria, a great deal of the country’s economic problems would have been solved.

    “We need to systematically address these problems. Homeownership will not take off until we have addressed the issue of affordability. We should help those who want to own a home to step on the escalator and move up to the point of homeownership,” he admonished.

    Inyangete, who spoke to a select team of real estate reporters in Lagos, however, disclosed that with the establishment of the NMRC in January 2014, to deepen the primary and secondary mortgage markets for increased homeownership by Nigerians, the process of making homeownership affordable had kicked off. “The NMRC’s key role is to make homeownership a reality through providing funds for mortgage lenders so they can make mortgages a reality for lenders,” he added.

    Yet, the Nigeria Housing Finance Programme (NHFP) represents another initiative at making home- ownership affordable. Through the NHFP, initiated by the the Federal Government and being implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the World Bank’s International Development Association loan, mortgage financing will receive a boost.

    The Managing Director, Homebase Mortgage Bank Limited, Dr. Femi Johnson, said stakeholders in the housing and mortgage industry were working assiduously to create an enabling environment for housing finance; this is to ensure that more people are able to own homes with ease of financing and also ensure that houses were available at the right prices. This effort is also inclusive of making mortgages available at the right interest rates and tenor, with issues of title transfers, foreclosures and the rights of tenants protected.

    Johnson, who is also a Board member of the NMRC, said another of such laudable steps that has been taken to actualise this dream is the My Own Home scheme. The initiative is being executed through the NMRC, mortgage guarantee/insurance scheme and housing microfinance scheme components of the NHFP.

    Giving further explanation on the scheme and how it works, Johnson narrated: “The first aspect of the scheme is mortgage where the NMRC plays a very active role; the second is the mortgage guarantee scheme, which is about to be launched by the CBN. This stage is essentially an insurance, which allows people that cannot afford the minimum 20 per cent equity contribution for mortgage to contribute five per cent and get a loan of up to 95 per cent. It is an innovative tool that is being used in other climes’’.

    He further explained that the other aspect, which is anchored by microfinance banks, is that of the housing microfinance for people at the end of the ladder. This category is for building incrementally.

    And the scheme seem headed for success. “Before the NMRC, the longest loan we gave was for five years even if usually our loans were for two years; but now, we give 20-year loan as a standard and what it means is that people are not under so much pressure to repay; they can spread their repayment over a long period and more people can now afford it. The NMRC takes bonds from the market for 15 years and we lend for 20 years and such mortgages are very prevalent in the market today,” Johnson explained. These initiatives, Johnson believes, have led to an increased confidence in the mortgage industry.

     

  • LASBCA goes tough on building contraventions

    LASBCA goes tough on building contraventions

    •Agency prosecutes defaulters 

    Relief, albeit temporarily, came the way of the 12 people arrested at various building construction sites in Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos State on Saturday, when a Magistrates’ Court granted them bail in various sums on Monday.  The presiding magistrate had ordered their detention in prison custody until they were able to perfect their bail conditions.

    The 12 were arrested during an enforcement exercise carried out by the officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), led by the General Manager, Lekan Shodeinde, an engineer.

    One of the defaulters, Mr. Obina Akabor, owner of the property on No 6, Chidi Street, Ajegunle, was released upon depositing N500,000 and two sureties. He was charged with a four-count charge of breaking government seal, no approval and no building permit, among others. Prior to his arrest, Akabor had caused confusion at the scene of his arrest, threatening to break the seal placed on his property under construction by LASBCA.

    Akabor, upon sighting LASBCA officials, let all hell lose, accusing them of wickedness. “I have paid over N4 million to government for approval, yet they keep sealing my house. I will break this seal again and finish building my house; I will not stop except I die,” he threatened.

    Shodeinde, however, said while Akabor had applied for building permit, he, however, had no approval to build. Besides, he explained that what Akabor had built on his parcel of land was at variance with the drawing plan he submitted.

    “Government is not stupid. There is no sane building authority that will approve what he has built here (pointing to the house). Akabor initially put up three buildings on the land, contravening building laws; we pulled down one and asked him to stop work on another, then we sealed the premises. But what do we see here? He has two buildings standing on the land when he has no approval. There is no way we will approve this kind of construction to stand, he has to take down one of the two buildings, and then wait for approval,” Shodeinde said, adding that on more than four occasions, Akabor had broken the government seal on his house.

    But that was not the only property sealed in the community. Five buildings on Ojo Road were equally sealed. Included in this is the zonal headquarters of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). The owners of the RCCG building, a massive three-storey structure, were said to have broken the government’s seal many times after it was served ‘stop work notice’ and sealed. The Nation gathered that notice of stop work order was served the developer on November 3, 2015, followed by another on April 29, 2016. Three labourers found working on the structure were arrested.

    A shopping mall on Owokoniran Street, opposite Access Bank, Coker Bus Stop, in Ajeromi, was also sealed. Although the first and second floors of the mall are already occupied by traders, the third floor is still under construction. LASBCA officials maintained that the entire build had no approval. It was gathered that the structure had been sealed several times, with the shop owners breaking government seals; two people were arrested.

    Also, De-Golden Guest Hotel, located at 98, Opebi Street, Ikeja, was also sealed, for what LASBCA called “illegal conversion from residential building to hotel” without approval.

    A livid Shodinde told The Nation that although Opebi area had been upgraded to a mixed use area, the building in question didn’t have the requisite approval.

    “It was an existing building –  residential now converted to hotel. The side is residential terrace building. The owner broke our seal several times. They started like they were renovating the house, and later paid for the renovation permit. To our surprise, when we came, we saw a hotel, the structure has been converted to a hotel without government approval. We sealed the property, but the owner unsealed it again. That is why we are shutting it down now for illegal conversion,” the LASBCA boss explained.

    Shodeinde warned that it would be a different ball game this year  for building construction defaulters.

    “This year, we will come down hard on defaulters who remove our seals. We will prosecute anybody found on site. Once a building contravenes, anybody found on it will be arrested and prosecuted. To unseal a sealed site is a criminal offence and the penalty is N500,000,” he said.

     

  • Right of Way: Lagos seeks submission of documents

    The Lagos State Government has appealed to property owners of  affected buildings on the  Right of Way (RoW) corridor of ongoing road projects in various areas of the state to submit relevant documents. This is to enable the government fast-track the processing of the compensation to be paid to persons affected.

    In a statement, signed by Mrs. Bukola Nwonah, head, Public Affairs, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development (MPP& UD), the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr Rotimi Ogunleye, was quoted as saying: “The Lagos state government is presently collating and assessing the documents of those that have submitted the required documents, but observed that some are yet to submit. We are concerned that affected owners at Murtala Mohammed International Airport road in particular have not turned in their documents. We are, therefore, appealing to all that are yet to submit in any of the project areas to do so immediately so that we can process the payment of compensation quickly.”

    The projects in question are: Igbe/Igbogbo/Bola Ahmed Tinubu Road and Agric-Isawo Road in Ikorodu Local Government Area; Agege Pen Cinema and adjoining roads in Agege Local Government Area and Murtala Mohammed Airport Road at Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area of the state.

    Ogunleye urged those affected to submit documents such as Certified Registered Title Document of Properties within the said Right of Way; Approved Building Plan Permit for the affected structures, and any other relevant document as Proof of ownership. Such documents should be submitted to the office of the Commissioner, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development at Block 15, The Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.

    He also appealed to stakeholders to continue to support the efforts of the state government, saying the massive infrastructural developments in various parts of the state were in line with the vision of the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to engender a safe, habitable, tourism-friendly environment for Lagosians. He added that the government appreciated the cooperation demonstrated by the people so far and appealed for continued support until the road projects are delivered for public use.