Category: Property

By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie

The Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) has held a two-day Road Show and Public Sensitisation  in Alimosho, Ikorodu and Agege local government areas.

The General Manager (GM) LASPPPA Funmi Osifuye said: “The Road Show, as part of the overall publicity and advocacy campaign of LASPPPA, is aimed at making voluntary compliance a norm among the building publics and stakeholders while also further registering the importance of having communities that are orderly and strategically planned to ensure safety of lives and property.”

Assuring that the campaign would be extended to other local governments, the GM said LASPPPA monitoring and enforcement team has been reenergised.

“It is our belief that the implementation of this campaign will help ensure the targeted messages on LASPPPA activities, mandates and renewed enforcement drive permeates the public domain more effectively. We are committed to the drive to ensure that citizens become aware that they can effortlessly process and obtain valid planning permit, without recourse to third party or quacks,” Osifuye said.

He noted that through the campaign, citizens, property owners, builders and developers would be educated on the requirements to obtain valid planning permit.

The GM added that the campaign was also intended to expand the feedback mechanism and grievance redress channel that could be explored by the public in registering their dissatisfaction with process of obtaining a planning permit or a breach of physical planning laws.

“The expanded feedback mechanism and grievance redress channel will assist us in effectively monitoring operations at our district town planning offices,” Osifuye stated.

He noted that improved compliance with physical planning regulations would help reduce and possibly halt the spate of collapsed building and distressed structures in Lagos with attendants’ protection of lives and properties.

The coronavirus pandemic further exposed the fault lines of the building and construction sector. Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie reports that poor infrastructure, funding, regulation and compliance remain major challenges for the sector

Many households do not have sufficient access to soap and water for handwashing, a survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has found. Washing of hands with soap under running water for at least 20 seconds is a key part of preventing the spread of coronavirus.

However, in its National Longitudinal Phone Survey (NLPS) on the socio-economic effects of COVID-19 on households conducted in June 2020, the NBS stated that 24 per cent had insufficient soap and seven per cent had insufficient water for washing hands. T he survey was the second of a planned 12 series of the COVID-19 NLPS of households in Nigeria – 1,950 households – to monitor the economic impact of the pandemic and other shocks.

According to the report, despite high awareness of safety measures, almost a quarter of respondents did not have sufficient soap to wash their hands. In the baseline, soap and cleaning supplies were the most commonly needed items, and most families confirmed that they were unable to purchase soap when needed.

Poorer households are more likely to have insufficient access to soap and water to wash their hands. The shortage of water for drinking and washing hands faced by households was primarily due either to a disruption in the supply or inability to access the source of water.

A breakdown showed that 28.4 per cent of the household could not afford water to wash their hand while 78.8 per cent could not  afford soap to wash their hands. Also, a large share of households reported that they could not afford to buy sufficient supplies of water,  17 per cent for drinking water and 28 per cent for handwashing water.

Prior to the pandemic, access to water was an issue in some areas. Some communities travelled miles to get water and in most cases, they were left with contaminated water, either from a stream or river.

According to a report of the Joint Monitoring Programme of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) entitled: “Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2000-2017”, one in three people globally do not have access to clean drinking water.

The survey indicated that 69 million Nigerians do not have access to safe water and 19 million have to walk long distances to get unsafe water from lakes, streams, and rivers.

There was also report that the construction sector lost significant number of jobs during the period, worsening the woes of the sector.

With increases in pump price of fuel and electricity tariffs, increased costs  made the construction sector to groan almost to a breaking point. Operators said the many increases have negative effects on the construction and real estate sector as the purchasing power of people have become very low occasioned by job losses and lower incomes.

“The construction industry engages a lot of actors, including professionals, artisans, and business organisations such as contractors, materials manufacturers, equipment manufacturers or leasing organisations. Many of the organisations are small medium enterprises that remain the engine room of growth in national economies. The use of the construction industry to grow national economies cannot be overemphasised. A cursory survey of some building materials manufacturers indicated that many are closing shops due to the cost of production combined with the harrowing effect of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the President, Nigeria Institute of Building (NIOB), Kunle Awobodu said.

He warned that increasing energy costs would further suffocate the few that are still surviving, adding that the implication of this scenario on improving housing stock for example is better imagined.

He advised the government and relevant stakeholders to stimulate a scenario for the production of inputs such as doors, windows and other components for large housing projects.

He advised that what the nation needs at this time is the ability to look inwards in line with the government espoused policy pronouncements and executive orders on local content.

“Generally, energy is required to run homes from many angles.  For managers of estates, the service charge would  have to go up.  Then the costs will be push over to renters or tenants.  So every renter will be paying more  in terms of rent.   Owners of dwelling will also incur more cost to run homes.  Ultimately, costing of housing will also go up. For construction,  energy is consumed in many ways – material production,  construction process – these will also be affected. Construction   cost Will also go up although marginally,” Past president, Association of Town Planning Consultants (ATOPCON), Moses Ogunleye.

Past Chairman, Nigeria Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Jide Oke  also said the increase in the prices of electricity, fuel and introduction  of stamp duty would greatly impact negatively on the construction sector.

Land resource in Lagos State is as important as oil wells elsewhere in the country. This has led to sharp practices by land grabbers, owners, speculators and even officials of government. But the Governor, Babajide Sanwo­Olu,  said this would be history by January 2021 when electronic C of O will come into effect. OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports

Following reports of alleged sharp practices in property ownership and land approvals, the Lagos State  Government  will adopt digitalised Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) in the first quarter of next year. This is just as the state government has received over 4,300 petitions on land grabbing. Consequently, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has warned land and property permit-approving agencies to live above board.

He made it clear that his administration would no longer tolerate officers engaging in sharp practices in issuing approvals.

Speaking at the maiden Lagos Real Estate Market Place Conference and Exhibition with the theme: “Unearthing real opportunities in real estate, making Lagos a 21st century economy”, Sanwo-Olu stated that residents and real estate practitioners were complaining about turnaround time for permit approval.

He advised the Ministry of Physical Planning and agencies under it, such as the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Agency and Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), on the need to scale up and do better job in physical planning approvals. He said real estate sector had the capacity to redefine the GDP (GDP) of the state more so as it occupies only 0.3 per cent of the country

The plan, the governor said, was to further accelerate the process of getting approvals on land matters and create an enduring business-driven property development market in the State.

Sanwo-Olu: “We, as a government, have looked at ourselves and seen the need to do things differently. That is why we have to sit down with you, because one of the areas I know you have problems with us is not only in lands but also in physical planning. We need to do a better job of physical planning; we need to do a better job of LASBCA and we need to do a quicker turnaround in our lands department, as the people want to have a positive experience.

“We have started it, we have solution on this GIS for a while, and it’s a project we are desirous to live on. Once it kick-starts, what it means is that it’s one stop shop. With it, you will be able to get your governor’s consent, approval and Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) on time, as well as all of the documentation for subsequent transaction.”

The governor noted that housing, real estate, property development are a critical sector and strong enabler that can help to transform the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state and by extension, the country.

He said: “I need to charge the real estate investors that; everybody needs not build in Sangotedo or Ibeju Lekki. Let us go to mainland and start regeneration of the assets in that part of Lagos. This way, we would be redistributing wealth and creating opportunities for our citizens.”

He also asked the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) that hosted the event not to compromise public data in her domain.

Earlier in her welcome address, Special Adviser to Sanwo-Olu on Housing Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka appealed to real estate investors to collaborate with the state government to create a home ownership model that would help address the deficits observed in housing market in the state through the state Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative in providing mass housing for the people.

She said: “As a government determined to bridge the housing deficit in the state, we are aware that the role of government is not just the provision of houses alone, but also to create an enabling environment for the private sector working hand in hand with the government to a desired end.”

During the panel discussion with private practitioners, heads of relevant ministries and agencies, Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Bode Agoro, further stressed that the electronic C of O would come on stream by January 2021.

He said the government has recorded reduction from five days to a record two hours for electronic searching of land documents online. He added the banking system is also embedded in the land registry. He said: “We have a non verbal intervention from start to finish, dual security measure that cannot be hacked or cloned. Unfortunately,  the state have more  unregistered titles than registered ones as a result of people feeling  that the process is cumbersome while some want to just register their titles until there is a transaction. The current administration is of the belief that a digital C of O will among other things   reduce cost of transaction, travel time and will also enable the public to transact their businesses where ever they are in the world and we are determined to deliver on this.”

Commissioner for Housing, Morouf Akinderu­Fatai canvassed serious real estate investors who according to him, do not have imbalance in forex. He advised them to raise money internally instead of looking for foreign funding.

The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo, said as part of efforts to promote the ease of doing business, the ministry enacted the State Property Protection Law in 2016.

Represented by a Director in the ministry, Mrs. KehindeTaiwo, Onigbanjo said the taskforce on land grabbing had received over 4300 petitions with over 2000 concluded in the one year and half of its operation.

Vice President, Mortgage Operations Trust, Adekunle Faleti, said insurance was a panacea for boosting home ownership in Lagos. He added that title insurance protects property owners from government revocation, mortgage banks and land speculators.