Experts: Finance, land biggest impediments to housing

Property developers have identified finance, land, and infrastructure among others as biggest impediments to affordable housing development in Nigeria.

According to the General Manager, Building Services, Urban Shelter, Muktar Aliyu, the problems of finance, land, and infrastructure in real estate development should urgently be addressed by government.

To solve the problem of finance, some of the experts, who spoke in a forum in Abuja, urged the Federal Government to consider the option of capital market fund for massive housing development programme in the country.

They are of the opinion that if such initiative is fully operational, the issues of financial challenge in housing industry would be a thing of the past.

Managing Director, Eximia Realty, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran, said the nation’s housing sector would require funding opportunities through capital market bonds to drive sustainable finance models in Nigeria.

According to him, utilising the capital market to get long-term funds should be the focus.

An officer of Enarxis International, Olufemi Ajulo, stated that monetary policy for developers should be explored.

President of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Ugochukwu Chime, suggested that development code be one of the factors that will lead to massive housing development, noting that only

few states have domesticated it.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Innovative Risk & Investment Solutions (IRIS) Limited, Professor Charles Inyangete, implored investors, financial providers and developers to finance sustainable buildings in order to cope with the current and imminent challenges of climate change.

Inyangete said that climate action offered a major opportunity to ensure sustainable global development and boost economic growth.

According to him, it is already delivering real results in terms of new jobs, economic savings, competitiveness and market opportunities, and improved wellbeing for people worldwide with even greater investment, innovation, and growth potential ahead.

Executive Director, Mixta Africa, Sade Hughes, said that housing problem was more pronounced in emerging markets across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

She said the biggest challenges faced by emerging markets like that of Nigeria included fragmentation and inability to meet unprecedented volumes of housing deficit; inability to align stakeholders and catalyse grassroots impact; challenges in making the economics work, and in a number of cases, housing initiatives are driven by governments who face enormous treasury challenges.

According to her, foreign direct investments are attracted more by regions where domestic capital was being applied to unbridle the potential in these economies.

In addition to strong economic fundamentals, she stated that local capital was required to de-risk opportunities and prove their viability to international investors.

“The application of local capital ahead of FDI plays an important role for the sustained growth of local enterprise in an economy,” she said.

Credit: NewTelegraph