Real Estate; Expert task developers on affordable housing in Nigeria

A Nigerian born enterpreneur, Real Estate Broker & Investment Expert, Bright Peterside has called on private real estate developers in Nigeria to focus more on affordable housing for Nigerians as a means to solving the problem of housing deficit in the country, rather than concetrating so much on lurxury property developnment for few individuals.

Speaking at the side line of a housing event which held recently, at the prestigious Federal Palace Hotel, Ahmadu Bello Way, Vl- Lagos, with the theme: Reshaping Real Estate in Africa, Mr. Peterside noted that;

“It was very important for developers to consider the issue of affordability in other to encourage home ownership among the Nigeria populace. It’s no longer news that Nigeria has an acute housing deficit estimated to be in the region of 22 million, which would require about N6trillion to fix, the only way we can therefore fight this scourge of housing deficit is to intentionally put up homes that the average income earner can afford” he said.

He however noted that doing so might not be so easy, given the peculiarities of housing development in Nigeria, but maintained that such was still possible if developers make it a proirity to build affordable homes for all, rather than focusing on building lurxury homes for a few.

Mr. Peterside further informed that;

“To properly tackle the accommodation shortage, the nation will need to build about one million housing units per annum in the next 20 years to bridge the deficit.

“Currently, the nation (both government and private sector) only produce about 75,000 housing units annually, which as an expert, I can tell you is a far cry from what is needed to solve acute accommodation shortages among the citizens. So with this, you can see that we have lots of work to do, and developers can lead the way by paying more attention on developing housing units that Nigerians can afford, especially in the face of current economic realities in the country” he added.

Also speaking at the 3 day Real Estate event, Dr. Ned Okonkwo, an ace lagos real estate developer of Victoria Crest Homes & Fully Energy powered Citadel Views Estates, called for stiffer regulations for the quality of building materials in Nigeria, as a means to ensuring quality and safe housing, devoid of collapse.

“When you have sixteen MM written on it & you use your caliber to guage it and its reading 12.5 MM,that is planning to fail. And the organization that is producing it are being monitored and regulated by Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON). Let them go and check all those Iron companies, and close them down! Indians & Chinese can not come to Nigeria and produce Irons that will kill Nigerians, its totally unacceptable. Same thing they cannot do in their home country, let them not come and do it here, he enthused”

– Some other notable speakers at the event includes; Mr. Allen Onyema(CEO, Air Peace), Dr. Kennedy Okonkwo (Convener & CEO of NedcomOaks Group), Mr. Vusi Thembekwayo (South African Billionaire serial enterpreneur), Pst. Godman Alabi, Fela Durotoye, Mr. Abimbola Olashore among others.