Stakeholders Demand Affordable Housing, Flexible Interest Rate

Provision of affordable housing have been a subject of discourse over a period of time by stakeholders in the real estate sector given the country’s housing deficit which stands at 17 million.

With the interest rate of 28% issued by some Primary Mortgage Banks (PMB’s) affiliated to commercial banks against the 6% interest rate by Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria ( FMBN ), experts have argued that it was impossible to provide affordable housing to Nigerians.

To this end, they called on the federal government to provide counterpart funding, flexible interest rate and recapitalisation of FMBN for effective service delivery as part of efforts to reposition the industry.

This formed part of the submissions at the just concluded 2-day intensive workshop for Real Estate Developers, organised by Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) in collaboration with Centre for Housing Studies University of Lagos with the support of Housing Programme on AIT Abuja and Housing Time on Raypower.

The theme of the event, ‘Real Estate Value Chain Enhancement for Increased Economic Growth Inclusiveness and Employment Generation’ drew participants from real estate sector, institutions, government and private owned construction and building sector.

In his address, the acting managing director of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN ), Mr Richard Essien said there is a need for the three tiers of government to provide funds for mass housing through the budget stressing that the issue of Foreclosure law should be consciously addressed by the government.

The MD who was represented by the General Manager Operations of FMBN, Mrs Mojisola Babatunde submitted that relevant financial instrument should be developed to exploit financing from the pension fund adding that there should be public funding for affordable housing development.

Also, the General Manager of Federal Housing Authority, Hajiya Maryam Ndalolo was optimistic that the housing sector needed five to six sectors to survive stating that FHA, FMBN, REDAN and federal government have defaulted in their roles.

“There is nowhere in the world where social and affordable housing is left on the hands of parastatals alone but FHA doesn’t get any form of subvention from the government.

She insisted that affordable housing could only be achieved when stakeholders join forces with the federal government.

The managing director/chief executive officer of Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), Prof Charles Inyangete spoke on the need for stakeholders’ collaboration to create enabling environment to grow mortgage stressing that Primary Mortgage Banks goes through credit analytical process.

He admitted that NMRC interest rate was driven by market rate and dynamics stressing that with the growth of mortgage market that the rates would drop gradually but with hard work and advocacy.

According to him, “We are engaging with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN ) to see if they can provide intervention funds that will enable us come up with single digit interest rate.

On his part, the President of REDAN, Rev Ugochukwu Chime regretted that many developers had died of hunger, closed shops and relied on their children for sustenance due to bottlenecks in loans repayment and inept government policies.

He solicited an enabling environment for real estate sector to close the gap of 17 million housing deficit even as he sought the review of transaction time, cost and corruption embedded in land administration.

Chime emphasized that many developers acquired large hectares of land at a high cost adding that REDAN is working towards developing effective Quality and Control mechanism which he rated as poor.

He lamented the failure of CBN to recapitalise FMBN even as he blamed the federal government for abdicating it’s responsibility of providing mass housing to Nigerians.

“REDAN in partnership with C-STEmp and DFID/GEMS 3 have commenced the training of artisans across the country and the current partnership with University of Lagos Centre for Housing Studies is meant to enhance the competencies and skillset of investors, entrepreneurs and managers of real estate development entities.

He said the paradigm shift in housing delivery approach from individual efforts to mass housing developers have not been fully captured adding that it had resulted to bickering and blame game within stakeholders.

He added, “It is in realisation of this anomaly and the pivotal role of real estate developers that we commenced a process of constructive engagement with all stakeholders with a view to removing the cloud of confusion and in – fighting that has prevailed for a long time.

Chime further added that REDAN would partner with other training institutions to develop a well-articulated training programme that would enhance performance in the real estate industry.

However, exhibitors at the workshop have lamented low turnout of participants, a situation they blamed on low publicity by the body.

In a chat with LEADERSHIP, the Representative of Royal ceramics, Mr Shakti Mohanty said though it was his first outing with REDAN that the professional body should expand the scope of the event by creating more awareness in order to attract more exhibitors.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of Rotex Group of Companies Limited, Mr John George noted that it was his company’s first outing with REDAN adding that he expected higher turnout of participants.

He commended the professional body for the event format, content and packaging of guest speakers stressing that the workshop were insightful and educative to experts in the industry.

George criticized lack of adequate publicity of the event which he believed led to low turnout of participants even as he advised the real estate body to work harder towards an improved outing in the future.

For Ms Nsa Edet, the Coordinator of Plus World Roofing Abuja, the workshop is very educative because it highlighted the intricacies that is good for the construction industry which can lead to affordable housing in the country.

She was hopeful that having engaged in the insightful workshop for two days that participants would add value to the economy by implementing the lectures by guest speakers.

Another participant who is the National Sales Manager of Eteleson group, Mr Eborka Desmond suggested that REDAN should reach out to many professionals in subsequent event just as he scored the event fair.

–Leadershipng