NIESV Express Displeasure With State of Housing Delivery

The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) has expressed displeasure at the low rate of housing development in the country, urging government to make deliberate efforts to house Nigerians because of its socio-economic advantages.

Members of the various faculties of the institution discussed areas the built environment that they want the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in.

The first vice president of NIEVS, Dr. Bolarinde Patunola –Ajayi, who is the coordinator of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) Board of Faculty, urged the government to involve members of the institution in housing and valuation issues.

He advised the Minister of Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola to involve all relevant stakeholders in the built environment to enable him succeed faster in the execution of his duties.

Patunola -Ajayi said because of the diversity of the profession of estate surveyors and consistent introduction of innovation into the practice the need has become pertinent for the professionals in the discipline to specialise.

READ ALSO – Estate Surveyors Lament Abandoned Projects, Offer Solution To Quick Delivery The Chairman, Faculty of Housing, NIESV, Elder Biodun Odeleye said the institution, through the Faculty of Housing, has been making frantic efforts to come up with a robust template on affordable housing delivery models in the country through community development approach to tackle the nation’s housing deficit.

He said research and practical experiences have exposed potent methods in dealing with the problems militating against effective housing delivery in the country.

Odeleye said, “We just concluded our programme, the national housing summit, the 2015 edition in Abuja. During the programme we highlighted how housing could be made affordable through community development concepts and that programme was very well attended and we had key speakers and lead discussants who came from the academia and development world.

“We had resource person from the Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria (REDAN). We harped on how we can use communities, professionals bodies, groups, associations, cooperative societies to start the agenda of providing houses for their members because when we are together like understand ourselves and we will be able to build synergies in terms of raising funds, facilitating how to access lands and we also emphasized the need for the housing ministries to work hand in hand with key stakeholders within the housing sector like the Federal Mortgage Bank, the mortgage refinance institutions , the Primary mortgage institutions, the builders merchants, all of them that have one role or the other to play in the housing sector.

“So that we can all work together , it is through the process of working together with the stakeholders that we can achieve the objective of providing houses for the teeming population in Nigeria.”
Corroborating him, the Secretary Faculty of Housing Mr. Casmir Anyanwu, noted that the idea of community development approach to mass housing is very important.

He said, “We are Nigerians and we belong to various associations, we realized that is it easier for cooperatives groups to lay hold on their members, monitor their progress and implementation of funds. So that if government could make pull off funds available removing the impediments that hinder people, organizations from accessing such funds for housing, through their associations that can monitor the usage of the funds, definitely the funds will be better channeled for the purpose of housing.

To achieve our objective and desire of housing for all, he pointed out that they are campaigning that funds be made available for communities and associations for housing purpose.

On the issue of valuation presently causing rift between estate surveyors and valuers a frontline Realtor and Chairman Faculty of Plants and Machinery, Samson Agbator described the involvement of Engineers in asset valuation in the country as inappropriate and usurpation of role.

He said, “There is what we call machineries they are tools that perform one function or the other. These are tools that have life in them, it means they have a beginning and they have an end. In determining the functionality of these tools there is what they call engineering evaluations, that is what engineer does. It is not valuation, it is called engineering evaluation.

“The evaluation we do as Estate Surveyors and Valuers is the worth of properties in the market between a willing buyer and a willing seller at what we call arms length transactions. There are some equipment that seems to be functional but because of the fact that in modern times they are not in demand, value wise, they don’t command any because there is nobody willing or interested in buying them but when you do engineering assessment of those plants you say those plants are still functional, it might be functional but does not command or connote any value in terms of exchange.

“Between the engineers and estate valuers there are disparity all over the world today you won’t find engineers doing valuation for asset purpose. The whole essence of valuation that we do is for asset purpose.
“For instance a company trying to know or assess the worth of their company looking at the components of their assets , the components of these assets comprise of land and building , plants equipment, machineries, motor vehicles , office furniture, fitting and fixtures these are add together and aggregate them together before you say this company is worth such and such amount in terms of what they call fixed asset.

“So for the engineers they can only do operational aspects of the engine to see if they are performing up to what they were meant for. What they are suppose to do in terms of functionality that does not mean they command values in the market place.”

He said in other jurisdiction when the issue of valuation is being discussed engineers do not participate, saying, “it is only in Nigeria that when the issues of valuation is being discussed you see the engineers making noise over value that they can value. In the real word they cannot value.”

Agbator said as experts and professional who have the authority to carryout valuation exercise they are working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Code of Conduct Bureau to determine the actual value of assets of being declared by political office holders.