Get Guardian on Google***Proposes pension funds, mortgage-backed securities to bridge 17m housing deficit
***Wants central housing depository to eliminate land fraud, accelerate mortgage financing
***Unveils 36-month roadmap for housing finance, land administration reforms
A former President of the Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN), Mr Ebilate Mac-Yoroki, has called for far-reaching capital market and land administration reforms to enable Nigeria deliver 500,000 housing units annually and tackle its estimated 17 million housing deficit.
Mac-Yoroki, Chairman of CityCode Mortgage Bank Limited, said achieving the target would require mobilising long-term investments from pension funds, insurance companies and foreign investors, rather than relying largely on government budgetary allocations and conventional bank lending.
He made the proposals in a position paper titled, “Scaling Nigeria Housing Supply to 500,000 Units Per Annum: A Market-Driven Policy Framework for Nigeria”, presented at the MBAN Annual Conference and Gala Dinner in Abuja on Friday.
He identified inadequate long-term financing, fragmented land administration, poor market data and rising construction costs as major obstacles to mass housing delivery, noting that formal housing production had historically remained below 50,000 units annually.
According to him, the mismatch between short-term commercial bank deposits and mortgages lasting 15 to 25 years has constrained affordable homeownership.
“The core structural failure of housing finance in Nigeria is a duration mismatch,” he stated.
To address this, he advocated channelling institutional investments into the housing sector through primary mortgage banks and the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC).
He specifically recommended expanding Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS), covered bonds, residential Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and specialised housing debt funds.
Under the proposed arrangement, mortgage lenders would pool existing loans and sell the resulting securities to institutional investors through platforms such as the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), freeing up funds for fresh mortgage lending.
He also proposed forward-purchase REITs, through which institutional investors could commit to acquiring housing units before construction, providing developers with predictable mortgage financing and reducing investment risks.
Mac-Yoroki further advocated blended financing instruments, including green bonds, social housing bonds and government-backed infrastructure bonds, supported by federal credit guarantees to lower borrowing costs.
He said targeted subsidies and shared-equity schemes would complement these measures and improve mortgage affordability for low- and middle-income Nigerians.
A major component of his proposal is the establishment of a Central Housing Depository (CHD), modelled on the digital clearing and settlement infrastructure of the capital market.
The platform, he explained, would integrate state land registries and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to create a unified database for verifying property ownership, mortgage registrations and existing claims against landed assets.
He said the country’s largely fragmented, paper-based land administration system encourages ownership disputes, multiple-sale fraud and prolonged title verification, discouraging investment and limiting the use of property as collateral.
Mac-Yoroki put the proportion of unregistered land in Nigeria at over 90 per cent, arguing that the proposed depository could reduce title perfection from months to days, facilitate electronic property transfers and strengthen investor confidence.
He said eligible mortgage-backed instruments could also become available for use as collateral in central bank liquidity operations, subject to regulatory approval.
Beyond land administration, he proposed a national housing information system to provide reliable data on mortgage originations, disbursements, loan performance and housing demand.
He recommended that MBAN serve as a central clearinghouse for housing finance information, maintaining a real-time dashboard for policymakers, investors and developers.
He also called for an Inter-Agency Housing Data Directorate within the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to coordinate data collection and ensure evidence-based policy decisions.
To expand access to mortgages, he advocated automated credit assessment systems for informal-sector workers and Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) to standardise property assessments and accelerate loan approvals.
On housing supply, Mac-Yoroki identified land tenure complications, expensive building materials, inadequate infrastructure and cumbersome approval processes as additional constraints.
He called for harmonised Governor’s Consent procedures under the Land Use Act, digital land administration, single-window construction approval platforms and increased domestic production of cement, steel and alternative building materials.
He estimated that roads, electricity, water and other supporting infrastructure account for between 20 and 30 per cent of housing development costs, urging greater use of public-private partnerships to finance such facilities.
To implement the proposals, he outlined a 36-month roadmap.
The first 12 months would focus on developing the regulatory framework for the Central Housing Depository through collaboration among the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
The second phase, covering months 12 to 24, would involve issuing residential mortgage-backed securities through NMRC-supported refinancing arrangements and integrating state GIS databases into the proposed platform.
The final phase, spanning months 24 to 36, would introduce forward-purchase REIT investments to support large-scale housing construction, alongside national automated property valuation systems.
Mac-Yoroki maintained that delivering 500,000 homes annually would require a shift from fragmented government housing programmes to an integrated, market-driven financing and investment framework.
“Targeting 500,000 housing units per year requires moving beyond traditional budgetary allocations towards market-driven infrastructure,” he stated.
He stressed that deeper capital markets, transparent property ownership records, reliable housing data and targeted affordability interventions would be critical to attracting the investments needed to bridge Nigeria’s housing gap.
Mac-Yoroki, who has over three decades of experience in capital markets, mortgage underwriting and housing policy, said housing development must be treated as an integrated investment ecosystem rather than merely a construction or public expenditure challenge.
