Prioritising Real Estate In Governments'Agenda key to achieving Mass Housing in Nigeria

Picture: From Left, Mr. Paul Owuanibe- of Landmark Group; Mr. Bolaji Edu-CEO Broll Project Nigeria; Mr. Adeniyi Adeleye- Head Real Estate Finance and Mr. Kfir Rusin- Conference convener

Over 350 real estate practitioners from across the globe and at least 170 Organisations, are in Lagos , Nigeria for a regional conference aimed at strenghtening public and private partnership towards developing the sector in West Africa.

At the opening of the two days Conference, Tuesday,  speakers called on governments in Nigeria and Africa in general to prioritize real estate in their agenda  to achieve the  goal of mass and affordable housing.

According to them, this is so because, the key requirements for mass housing including access to long term capital , infrastructure and  regulatory framework, can only be achieved with government either providing or subsidising them.

They particularly underlined the provision of primary infrastructure, especially constant power and good road as essential in addressing housing deficits.

The convener of the conference Mr. Kfir Rusin, said the objective was to make Governments in the region to understand the importance of real estate and its huge impact on the economy and GDP if sustainably developed.

"There is a lot of objectives and I think the global theme is to change the narrative for West African Property and we want to come in here and create a platform that is going to drive growth in the real estate and put real estate at the forefront of the government agenda. I mean, making sure that Government in Nigeria, and the states understand the importance of real estate and it's impact on economic and GDP growth. We have brought global and local practitioners as well as financiers and also Government sector to involve in holistic discussion in order to overcome obstacles and fish out all the opportunities. To change the narrative, we have to first of all address the issues and of course highlight the growth opportunities".

Rusin expressed satisfaction with cooperation of governments in Nigeria especially those of Lagos and Ogun states, whose delegations were among the first speakers. "I think, in terms of the response from Government, it has been very positive and I think we have seen a lot of eagerness. I think they have been forthcoming to realize the impact of real estate on the growth of the environment and economy and we definitely have seen an increase in government and willingness to engage with private sector to drive public and private partnership in our discussions".

In a briefing being part of the side events,  real estate executives underlined the low level of government support , absence of Sustainable financing, poor infrastructure and  high taxes , as setbacks to real estate development.

one of the speakers Mr.  Adeniyi Adeleye argued that, if there is a good road network, people can live far away from their places of work and housing would not be an issue. "If there is a good road network, it is possible for people to for instance live in Ibadan and go to work in Lagos. By so doing, the two cities will develop. So it is about that primary infrastructure. If you don't do that, people will continue to complain of housing problems. The problem of Nigeria is not rocket science. It is just the willingness to do it".

Responding, the Commissioner for Housing in Lagos State, Gbolahan Lawal assured the delegates of willingness of the state government to partner with the private sector , pointing out that the Federal Government and many state governments already have structures on ground in that regard.

Mr. Lawal stressed that governments in the country have realized the essence of mass housing and the role of the private sector in achieving the objective.

He pointed out that to achieve mass housing, Lagos State Government is implementing an initiative of providing ten thousand low-cost houses in five years, through public-private partnership.

"We can really have adequate, secured and affordable homes for more Nigerians and indeed Lagosians. As a matter of fact, we have the Lagos Affordable Public Housing Initiative, where we plan to have minimum of ten thousand housing units in the next five years which we have started. We have our developers already on site for construction. We are proud to say that we are  still open to have more private developers to come and help us in this Lagos Affordable Public Housing. It is like a joint venture partnership where the contribution of the state is the land and all the permits and approval while they bring their own finance and construction expertise for the provision of the houses".

Delegates from different African countries including Senegal spoke on the challenges and obstacles to real estate sector development, especially the area ensuring mass and affordable housing.

It was the concensus of delegates that while the intervention of governments was key to addressing housing deficits, the use of workers pension funds as collateral for long term capital would go a long way.

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