CREATIVE SOLUTIONS TO HOUSING DEFICIT

Lagos is set to bridge the housing deficit by reviewing its property laws, writes Olu Masote

Governance is obviously not a tea party. It requires deep creative thinking and reasoning outside the box for solutions to the myriad of challenges that are facing the people. This was demonstrated by the highly regarded governor of Lagos State, Mr. Olusola Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the just concluded 5th Lateef Jakande Housing Lecture Series Organised by the Real Estate Developers Association in Lagos where he unveiled thought-provoking viable options for the mass housing deficit. 

Land is gold in Lagos. As the Niger Delta region cherishes oil, the same way Lagos treasures its land. This is understandable considering the fact that Lagos has the smallest landmass size in Nigeria, despite being host to millions of Nigerians from all walks of life. It also controls a large chunk of economic activities both corporate and commercial in the country, putting more pressure on the state.

Providing decent and affordable housing for the teeming population of Lagos has been a herculean task for years. Successive governments from the golden era of Late Lateef Jakande, the first elected civilian governor of Lagos to the modern day Lagos under the leadership of former governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Late former governor Jakande built mass housing across Lagos for middle-income earners. Most of the estates have been refurbished and repurposed to meet the housing and accommodation needs of today.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, like his successors, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode also strengthened the housing policy agenda by building mass housing for Lagosians. 

The current governor Sanwo-Olu has taken mass housing a notch higher. He has delivered some of the iconic housing schemes like the Ibeshe Housing Estate, Ikorodu and others. He has also announced an ambitious 10,000 units of housing by 2027 to aggressively bridge the housing deficit gap.  

The governor understands the massive economic opportunities that will be unleashed with such developments. Local economy of the host communities will be stimulated and the socio-economic condition of the people will be improved. Also, many young artisans who have been out of jobs will be engaged and contribute productively to the economic growth of the state. All this, also has a great impact on security and safety of citizens. Many of the hands that would have been accessories for criminally-minded people would be busy at construction sites and involved in other economic activities in the construction value-chain. That was the deep, holistic thought process of the governor.    

He was not bluffing. The governor was sure of his plans and he had the roadmap. He tabled various creative means of bridging the housing deficit which include a strong legal framework for the real-estate sector by reviewing the extant Property Laws of Lagos State 2010 and the Rental Law of Lagos State 2011.

The laws are investor friendly, the required capital to develop the real estate space will flow in and the prosperity will be shared among the people. No sensible investor will invest massively in an unregulated sector with a laissez faire regime. That confidence building has already been established. The governor hinted on the compelling need to protect the interest of investors and end users in the state through the review.

He said, “In looking ahead, we have also digitised the processes of our departments for increased efficiency and greater customer satisfaction. While acknowledging our strides in the provision of homes for all, I want to charge all stakeholders in the built sector to do more by sponsoring leading-edge research into innovative building technology that could help reduce the cost of building.

“The scenario that I had painted showed the abundance of opportunities in the entire housing value chain. Given our audacious goal of providing 10,000 new homes by 2027, our doors are open to partnership and collaboration both in the present and in the future.

“Of course, we will go vertical in providing safer homes for our people. We also anticipate that as our population increases, the number of vulnerable would also increase, so we must make provisions for social housing.

“We will expect a re-imagining of the expectations of future urban dwellers, which, of course, may exclude home ownership. We expect to see more efforts in terms of house rentals and co-housing. For this purpose, we are already reviewing some of our laws, mainly the Property Law of Lagos State 2010 and Rental Law of Lagos State 2011, to take care of the interests of both investors and end-users.

‘’The state was looking at leveraging fintech to provide tailor-made solutions to our pertinent problems in creating convenient mortgage options for our people” .

Aside from the above espoused creative financing options, the governor also mulled plans to ink the paper with neighbouring states with large expanse of land for mass housing development. The gateway State of Ogun readily comes to mind due to its proximity to Lagos.  The border towns in Ogun State where majority of Lagos workers reside will experience massive development as road infrastructure and other amenities will be channelled towards the axis as a result of the Lagos State Housing Scheme located in the area.

“We have also opened our doors to partnerships with investors, who have innovative ideas that could result in shorter time of completion, cheaper homes, and convenient mortgage packages. We had a partnership that leveraged building technology whereby 2-bedroom flats were completed within 14 days.”

The said building technology according to the governor came with energy-saving designs that reduced water and power usage thereby adjusting costs for homeowners. He added that the partnership gave the state government 252 bungalows in a Green Estate at Idale, Badagry.

The proposed partnership with neighbouring South west states will also strengthen regional integration of the South- West. Lagos will always set the pace and blaze the trail. It is not just referred to as the Centre of Excellence and Aquatic Splendour for the sake of it. The state is leaving up to the bill as the most advanced and sophisticated sub-national entity in Nigeria and West Africa at large.

 Masote writes from Lagos