To ensure the property market contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), housing corporations have called on the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to inject a minimum of N500 billion loans as intervention funds into the real estate sector.
If the demands of the Association of Housing Corporations of Nigeria (AHCN) are met, the group expects the sector to contribute about 15 per cent to GDP, customize and cumulate mortgages products as well as affordable housing designs to create and prequalify a minimum of 200 off-takers in each state to pilot affordable housing provision at a single digit to develop the housing sector.
AHCN made the demand after a meeting in Kano, where the delegates also agreed that inappropriate housing production strategies and affordability consideration as major reasons for unoccupied housing units in major cities like Abuja and Lagos, and called for immediate paradigm shift of putting off-takers at the centre of housing delivery.
The meeting bemoans the dearth of skilled and unskilled labour in the housing sector and resolves to embark on retraining of housing personnel especially professionals that supervises projects on sites to drive production of quality housing and the daunting task of mitigating housing shortage in Nigeria.
The forum observes the lackadaisical attitude of governments to the National Housing Fund(NHF) as opposed to what obtained when the policy was newly introduced and admonishes that all outstanding contributions to the NHF should be remitted while the statutory provisions of the National Housing Policy should be strictly enforced and applied as well as the sanctions embedded in the policy.
In the communique signed by AHCN President, Muhammed Baba Adamu and Secretary General, Mr. Olusola Martins, the association identified non-availability of data bank on real estate and mortgage information management as a major challenge affecting the development of mortgage system in Nigeria, and resolved to partner Value Chain Project Consultants to create data base for potential home owners.
The meeting bemoans the dearth of skilled and unskilled labour in the housing sector and agreed to embark on retraining of housing personnel especially professionals that supervises projects on sites to drive production of quality housing and the daunting task of mitigating housing shortage in the country.
AHCN noted that the Nigerian mortgage system is still underdeveloped in driving homeownership, as more than 90 per cent of new homes utilise funds from personal savings for incremental construction of which overall mortgages account for less than 1 per cent of National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and real estate accounts for just about 8 per cent, as opposed to 35per cent and 65per cent respectively in other developing and developed economies of the world.
The association therefore resolved to take advantage of the $2 billion partnership fund at $200 million annually over a period of 10 years between Federal Mortgage of Nigeria and Shelter Afrique to access construction loans for its members.
By Marc Philips