‘Poverty Still The Major Challenge In Nigeria’s Real Estate’

In an interview published on Nigeria Today, CEO of M.I. Okoro and Associates, Meckson Innocent Okoro, bares his mind on the issue of Mass housing in Nigeria and its implication of housing delivery. He said the challenges faced in Nigeria Real Estate practices are  political and financial.

Read excerpt below:

What are the challenges faced in Real Estate prac­tices in Nigeria?

The major challenge is still that Nigerians are poor. There is no disposable income. People don’t have money to buy property and government poli­cies are not helping matters. There is also the challenge of policies of house ownership in Nigeria. There is no possibility of a common man owning a property in Nigeria and this affects the growth of the profession and house delivery in Nigeria. I can call that political and financial challenges

On attributing the prob­lem of shortage of low cost housing to government:

It is not about attributing the blame to government, it is entirely the responsibility of government. Government has to bear over 120 percent of the burden of low cost housing. Even when done, those who work in such parastatals allocate the houses to themselves and later sell at high prices, not giving to those that it was meant for. That is our experience with that. Government should ensure such houses are built for the people and that is what is done in other countries of the world.

What should the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing know and do about real estate and low cost housing?

Well, I was thinking that when Fashola, who was an erudite governor for that matter, steps into office, the first thing he would do would be to invite major stakeholders like estate surveyors and valuers in the industry, including architects in the industry, so we could chart out a course for effective housing delivery in this country. That he has not done and I am not sure he will do. He is taking a lot of things for granted and I cannot see him making any impact in the ministry. I am not underrating his efficiency but as far as I am concerned, he hasn’t started. As far as hous­ing is concerned, he has not started. When he starts, people like us will know.