The Managing Director, KnightStone Properties Limited, Mr. Adeniyi Adams, has accused the government of breaking its contract on social housing provision with the citizenry.
He spoke at the firm’s media launch and ambassador unveiling in Lagos, last week.
One area that this contract has been grossly broken is land. According to Adams, houses have become too expensive to provide because the government has placed a huge premium on land.
“Land should not be made a premium because it makes cost of housing higher; it is not meant for government to place a high premium on since it was freely given by God. Housing scheme is meant to be a social contract between the government and the people,” he explained.
Adams noted that the 17 million housing deficit would not have been a headache for developers if the government did the right things. One of these is the provision of infrastructure that will make housing delivery easier.
“It is not the delivery of housing that is a problem, but the infrastructure. If the government can take away the aspect of infrastructure from developers, then housing will come in easier. The social contract has been broken and unless something is done, we will continue to live in slums. The statistics is that about one-quarter of Nigerians are living in inappropriate houses,” he explained.
The Knightstone chief said his firm was intervening in the situation by not only building for the top echelon of the society, but also giving preference to building for people at the bottom of the pyramid, who are affected by the housing shortage.
One way the firm has done this is to build housing carcasses are selling same to interested parties to complete on their own. By so doing, he explained, houses become affordable to an individual because he is able to finish the building based on his financial strength.
“We deliver carcasses, which makes cost lower and the owner can finish it up with consideration for his own taste and financial muscle. For instance, carcasses could cost as much as N4 million, while the finishing could cost N10 million. So, an individual can decide how much he wants to spend on finishing,” Adams explained, adding that his firm also provides people the opportunity of flexible payment on properties purchased.
The Group Managing Director, HFP Engineering Limited, Mr. Dele Martins, noted that though the issue of affordable housing had remained on the front burners in the country, its implementation was shrouded in extreme hypocrisy by the main stakeholders.
Martins, represented by HFP’s Executive Director, Human Resources, Mr. Layi Omojola, regretted that while the country needs to build about 700,000 housing units yearly if there is to be an impact on the deficit, only a paltry 100,000 units are being built.
He listed the factors mitigating against housing delivery to include the lack of provision by the government of the primary infrastructure required to support the development of affordable estates, including roads, access to water and electricity, unfavourable government policies, unavailability and difficulty of accessing affordable mortgages for the purchase of houses by individuals, unstable investment environment, difficulties and lack of transparency in acquiring affordable land for the development of affordable housing, and bureaucracy in obtaining title documents to acquired or transferred land.
Others are exorbitant cost of consent and other fees on the transfer of Land; bureaucracy and difficulties in obtaining building and other regulatory approvals for the construction of affordable housing, and the high cost of building materials and over dependence on imported building materials.
Others are the non-alignment of the interests of the various stakeholders particularly the developers, commercial and mortgage banks on the one hand and the intended beneficiaries of affordable housing on the other; absence of fiscal incentives by government to make affordable housing development attractive, and indiscipline and corruption in the implementation of affordable housing schemes.
“If we are to succeed in our claimed quest for the provision of affordable housing to the citizens of Nigeria and in particular low income earners there is an urgent need for governments at all levels to approach the subject holistically, sincerely and a great deal of commitment,” Martins noted.
He explained that the success in the provision of affordable housing depends on the seriousness and commitment of all stakeholders, especially the government in particular.
According to Martins, the issue is not a subject on which policy can be formulated or schemes introduced and left to run by themselves in the hope that the desired result will be achieved.
Rather, he cautions, it requires a hands on monitoring and tweaking approach along every step of the way. To achieve this, any defaulter, he maintained, must be punished.
“The corrupt process whereby what starts as an affordable housing scheme metamorphoses into a land grabbing exercise for friends and cronies of government must stop,” he warned, adding that government does not need to build or provide funds to build, but to create an enabling environment and ensure that everybody plays by fair and transparent rules.’’
