Undergraduate students in tertiary institutions living in hostels and off-campus are paying more now for accommodation as property owners and schools’ managements have increased their rent, as well as fees due to inflation in the country.

The development, which property managers traced to high maintenance costs incurred in upgrading of facilities has triggered increased cost of living amongst students, as well as raised concerns on the significant impact on students’ budgets, sustainability, and affordability.

Students have been struggling with the sudden increase in hostel fees and rents, as well as cost of living recently due to rising inflation in the country, which have caused additional financial burden on their parents. They‘re also frustrated by the dilapidated state of hostel facilities, lack of maintenance schedule, and poor management in several institutions, which prompted some of them to seek alternative housing outside the campuses.

The Guardian gathered that several institutions have increased their hostel fees recently between 20 to 50 per cent. In University of Lagos, the fees increased from N25,000 to N43,000, while Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ebonyi State, hiked the fees from N51,000 to N62,000. While Ogun State Institute of Technology (OGITECH) increased its fees from N50,000 to N60,000.

Similarly, off-campus rent for apartments and lodges have been jerked up by their managers, for instance in the Churchill Business Consult hostel, Lagos, apartments were increased from N400,000 to N800,000 per year, and other off-campus housing providers have also increased rent. A bed space in a students’ lodge in Akoka increased from N140,000 to N200,000 per year.

Authorities at the University of Lagos confirmed that it increased hostel rent from N25, 000 to N43, 000. The Dean Student Affairs, University of Lagos, Prof. Musa Obalola, told The Guardian that the amount is grossly inadequate to take care of the hostel maintenance cost due to the intensity in the maintenance of facilities.

He lamented that students have turned hostels to business ventures, where a bed space of N43,000 is re-rented to another student between N100,000 to N120,000, while bonafide bed space owners, also give the same bed space to squatters, hangers, and floaters for other amount.

This act, he said, is illegal as specified in the university’s student handbooks. He said: “They know it. These habits put pressure on the facilities because every day, we are repairing facilities. It is obvious that what they’re paying could not take care of the maintenance of the hostels.

“So, that is what led to the upward review last year after due consultation with different stakeholders. It was not only the accommodation fee that was reviewed; it includes the obligatory charges that they pay. It was increased from N25,000 to N43,000 for a bed space,” he said.

Obalola revealed that the fees may go up next year due to increasing cost of maintenance, “Maybe next year, it might go up because the N43, 000 cannot do any maintenance. If we really want to charge economic rent, we will be charging between N200, 000 to N250, 000 per session.”

A property developer, Mr Babatunde Adeyemi, explained that the high cost of building materials like cement, rod, and sand, as well as cost of transporting materials has affected their project, which made them to stop work at a new hostel facility.

He said that some of the materials used in their construction were imported and continuing with the current exchange rate will result in a loss.

Also, a Lagos-based property investor, Mr Adewunmi Abiona, said the private firm is incurring huge expenses on diesel and maintenance cost. “We run it like a service apartment. In future, students will not be able to pay rents because it will soon be higher. It will get worse in the next six to 12 months and investors will lose out if nothing is done to curtail inflation,” he said.

Abiona, who leased premium apartments from the developers for 10-15 years, confirmed that rent for service apartments have increased in the university town in Akoka. A self-contained room that was N4million is now being leased at N6 million, while a mini-flat of N8 million goes for N12 million per year.