Urge partnership, single-digit mortgage to enhance home-ownership

The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Lagos State branch, has called for stronger tripartite collaboration between the government, professionals and the public in tackling the menace of building collapse across the country.

It also emphasised the need to institutionalise single-digit mortgage to boost housing accessibility and remove impediments to affordable housing, especially the high cost of land, access to funding, cost of building materials, labour, and challenges with perfecting property titles.

Chairman of NIESV Lagos branch, Tosin Kadiri, spoke during a courtesy visit to Rutam House, Headquarters of The Guardian in Lagos.

Other members on the visit include the Vice Chairman, Ayodeji Odeleye; Treasurer, Talat Yusuf-Abdulkadri; Publicity Secretary, Tokunbo Akinhanmi, and Chairman, Welfare subcommittee, Olarewaju Oladele.

Kadiri said the visit was to strengthen the already established relationship and have a strategic partnership that would be beneficial to both parties, and ultimately to the public, as well as educate the public on happenings in the real estate industry.

He said that the problem requires all hands to be on deck to address it collectively.

According to him, the government should perform its regulatory and monitoring roles perfectly, developers should adequately engage professionals in projects, while the public reports activities in the construction sector to the government for necessary action.

The NIESV Lagos branch chairman said that a way to promote affordable housing in the country is to ensure access to single-digit mortgages, urging the government to promote social housing for low-income earners, as well as site and services schemes.

He further suggested that the government could partner with private developers by providing land for use in the form of a joint venture to drive down the cost of development and ultimately make housing affordable for Nigerians.

Besides, he appealed to the media to deepen its responsibility of bringing information to the public space, educate and enlighten the public, for them to take advantage of what the government is doing in addressing the housing deficit and affordable housing challenge in the country.

Vice Chairman of the chapter, Ayodeji Odeleye, said the branch had been advocating that governments should ‘name and shame’ some of the owners and developers of buildings in collapse cases.