The Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) has tasked political parties and candidates to move beyond promises on security, healthcare, infrastructure, and economic growth to prioritising housing at the centre of national conversation.

The group lamented that for too long, housing has appeared in political manifestos as a few paragraphs promising thousands or millions of homes. However, it noted that after elections, many of those promises disappear, while rents continue to rise, mortgage access remains difficult, land administration becomes cumbersome and the cost of construction continues to increase.

HDAN highlighted this in a new report by its Research and Economic Unit, arguing that housing is not merely about putting roofs over people’s heads but directly connected to poverty reduction, employment creation, infrastructure development, public health, family stability, industrialisation, wealth creation and the overall quality of life.

“Every candidate seeking to govern Nigeria should therefore be prepared to answer one fundamental question: Where and how will Nigerians live under your government? The 2027 election must be different. Every presidential and governorship candidate should present Nigerians with a clear, measurable and properly funded housing strategy. Housing Must Become a Major Election Issue. A serious housing manifesto should explain how a candidate intends to deal with land administration. How quickly will Nigerians be able to obtain titles? What will be done about the high cost of land?How will governments make serviced land available for affordable housing?How will land administration be digitised and made more transparent?, HDAN said.

The group also stressed that candidates must also explain their mortgage strategy, warning that it is not enough to promise to build houses when millions of Nigerian workers cannot obtain affordable long-term finance to purchase them.

“Mortgage reform, rent-to-own programmes, housing cooperatives, pension-backed housing finance and other innovative financing mechanisms should become important election issues. Candidates should be able to tell Nigerians what mortgage interest rates they hope to achieve, how long the repayment period will be, who will qualify and what reforms will be undertaken to expand access,” the report said

On building material, HDAN emphasised that the costs cannot be ignored as the rising cost of building materials must equally feature prominently in the 2027 campaign debate.

It expressed worries that Cement, steel, roofing sheets, sanitary fittings, electrical products, tiles, glass, aluminium and finishing materials have significantly increased the cost of producing housing and asked that political candidates should explain how they intend to encourage greater local production, increase competition, reduce energy and transportation costs, improve access to affordable industrial finance and support certified alternative building technologies.

According to HDAN, candidates should also state clearly what they intend to do about rising rents, inadequate rental supply and the shortage of affordable accommodation in rapidly growing cities.

“Nigeria requires policies that encourage institutional investment in rental housing, protect tenants and landlords, improve the efficiency of rental markets and increase the stock of decent, affordable accommodation. Housing policy must recognise that solving Nigeria’s housing problem requires both homeownership and affordable rental housing,” it said.

“Housing development is one of the strongest instruments available to government for employment creation and economic expansion.When housing construction increases, demand rises for architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, builders, estate surveyors, planners, artisans, plumbers, electricians, welders, painters, transporters and thousands of small businesses.It also stimulates cement manufacturing, steel production, furniture, tiles, glass, aluminium, paints, building technologies, financial services and other sectors of the economy,” HDAN added.

According to the group, Nigerians must demand more than promises whenever a candidate says: ‘We will provide affordable housing’ but should ask; how many homes will you deliver, for which income groups, at what price, location, what mortgage interest rates will buyers pay, what infrastructure will support the developments and how will low-income Nigerians participate?

“The Housing Development Advocacy Network believes the 2027 elections present an important opportunity to make housing a major national campaign issue. Presidential and governorship candidates should be encouraged to present their housing programmes directly to Nigerians and housing-industry stakeholders. They should move beyond political slogans and provide concrete commitments that should have measurable targets,” the group said.