Lagos Developer Calls for Realistic Approach to Premium Housing Delivery Amid Rising Costs

Bennett Oghifo

A Lagos-based real estate developer, Obinna Anthony Chukwuneta, has urged industry stakeholders to adopt a more realistic assessment of the resources needed to deliver premium housing in Nigeria’s commercial capital, warning that rising construction costs and macroeconomic pressures are narrowing the margins available to developers committed to quality.

Chukwuneta, Managing Director of Attarhi Nigeria Limited, a boutique development firm with projects including Tusk Tower, Riva Estate, Marina Del Ray and Grace Pointe, said the conversation about Nigeria’s housing deficit risks becoming abstract unless grounded in the practical realities of project delivery.
“When people quote figures of 15 or 20 million units, the numbers are so large that they lose meaning,” he said. “What is more useful is to discuss what it takes to deliver one project well, and then to ask whether the conditions on the ground allow developers to do so sustainably.”

His comments come amid sustained pressure on the construction sector. The price of a 50kg bag of cement has risen from approximately ₦9,000 in December 2025 to ₦12,500–₦15,000 as of July 2026, depending on brand and location. Steel, sand and other critical inputs have followed similar upward trends, with a recent industry report noting a 30 per cent increase in construction input costs in the first quarter of 2026 alone.
In January 2026, the National Housing Data Technical Committee revised Nigeria’s housing deficit to 14.9 million units, with Lagos alone facing a shortfall of more than 2.7 million units. Chukwuneta said developers in the premium segment face particular pressure because their buyers expect standards that cannot be compromised when input costs rise.

“Your job as a developer is to absorb cost pressures and improve efficiency across your procurement, project management, and the way you run your site,” he said. “That is where the discipline lies. You cannot tell a buyer that finishes are lower because cement prices have risen.”

He called on government at all levels to look beyond digital reforms and faster approvals, recommending instead a structured partnership between the public and private sectors to stabilise the cost of key building materials and to improve access to development finance for compliant developers.
“What the sector needs is a framework that rewards developers who build to standard with better access to finance and lower regulatory costs,” he said. “That kind of incentive structure would do more for housing delivery than any single policy intervention because it aligns quality with viability.”

Despite the challenges, Chukwuneta expressed confidence in Lagos’s long-term outlook, describing the city’s growth trajectory as irreversible.

“Lagos is not going to stop building. The question is whether it continues in a way that produces buildings people can trust and an industry that serious developers and investors want to join. That is the only version of growth worth sustaining.”