Housing Deficit: Why Empty Estates Litter FCT,‎ Says FCT Minister

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammad Bello has blamed the increasing number of empty estates that litter the nation’s capital on the failed accelerated mass housing scheme initiated by the previous FCT administration.

He said ‎the scheme was intended to accommodate all strata of the society; low, medium and high income earners‎, before the vision was derailed.

To this end, the minister noted that the FCTA was putting measures in place to ensure that such infractions do not occur in the future by ensuring strict adherence to laid-down guidelines.

The minister, who was represented by the Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Agency (FCDA), Engr. Umar Jibril disclosed this in Abuja at the recent unveiling of ‎Crown Court golf estate.

According to him, “when the accelerated mass housing development was initiated by previous administrations in the FCT, it was intended to accommodate all strata of the society; low, medium and high income earners. Along the line however, a lot of things happened which derailed that vision and if you move round the estates in the city today, you will discover that most of them are empty because many of us cannot afford the very high cost being charged by the developers.‎”

Bello added, “I am particularly happy to see that the whole estate was conceived with the lower income earners in mind, with an innovative programme called Lease-to-Own, which I was told would allow your clients to own a house by leasing or renting the property over a 15-year period. This is a good idea which I must say is highly commendable.” He called on other prospective mass housing developers to emulate this model.

Earlier, the Chairman, Crown Realities Plc, Chief Ferdinand Alabraba, said the company is the signature for good homes in Nigeria, adding that the estate was the first golf estate in Abuja, the most secured, and with a mini mart for purchase of everyday items.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Darl Uzu, said‎ the estate when completed would house 81 units of single family residential units built in phase 1 and 2.
The estate, he noted, provides a 24/7 power supply and supplemented with three synchronised ‎630 KVA each standby generating plants.

Uzu stressed that the estate was reasonably priced with flexible payment terms ‎under its Lease-to-Own initiative programme which allows instalmental payment for fifteen years period.
He lamented that the ailing economy ‎has affected the sector as people now struggle to buy houses built by developers unlike before when the sector was booming.

“The thing that happens with this business is that the way we buy houses. ‎Unless people are stealing money you can’t bring that whole big money to buy houses. Once you don’t have that stealing going on you have glut in the market; Abuja is much more hit, because the money that are coming into the system are all slush money. If it was before buy now we would have sold these off.”

He said more than N3 billion was expended on the estate, noting that the land alone cost N630 million.
“You cannot build those kind of houses (affordable house) with the money we buy land. If we get allocation from government, yes we can, we can do something that is reasonable,” Uzu stated.