Stakeholders call for rentage control

Worried by the high rentage in some major cities in Nigeria, some stakeholders in the Nigerian project have called on government at the state and federal levels to enact law on rent control. They have opined that government needs to act now to save the masses from the exploitation of some landlords, stressing that anything short of a rent control law in the present situation would not augur well for Nigerians.
Some of the stakeholders who made their positions known while interacting with The Tide in Port Harcourt at various forums posited that only very few people can actually pay rents in some cities like Port Harcourt, Abuja and even Lagos, among others.
For Mr Yemi Idowu, a legal practitioner, the issue of tenancy is a serious matter, especially when one realizes what tenants go through on daily basis.
Stating that the tenancy matter is a serious one because if you go through such harassment from your landlord, it ruins one’s day and lowers one’s productive rate.

On his part, Geoffery Attah, said that government needs to act without further delay that such will check the obnoxious increase of rent and other irregularities.
Mr. Attah, an estate surveyor and valuer said – “Imagine somebody whole income is N100,000 a month, yet he is to pay for an apartment at a very high cost where about 50 per cent of his income is spent on rent, is that not economic suicide.”

He also urged government at all levels to embark on aggressive mass housing for the lower class of the society, as part of efforts to tackle high rent challenges.