Contrary to the assumption that housing deficit in Nigeria stood at 17 million, the President, African region, International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) and principal partner, Ubosi Eleh and Company, Chudi Ubosi has revealed that Nigeria’s real housing deficit should be in the region of over 25 million units.
In an interview, he decried that “There is absolutely no structure on ground to shelter this population if indeed we are 198 million.”
“Our housing deficit for several years has been that, it is at 17 million units depending on who you are talking to. The truth is that if our population is the size which we say it is, our housing deficits should be well over 25 million units.
“Now, what is on ground to house this 25 million people or provide accommodation for over 25 million people from the housing market? There is very little. One is that the government can never do it alone because it is not a public sector driven. It has to be public and private sector partnerships. The government provides the enabling environment, the private sector go into developments to be able to meet the needs of the masses in housing. When we talk about this 25 million, 17 million units, let me use 17 million. When we talk about it, you find out that the most number of housing that is needed are actually those at the lower bottom of the pyramid.
“Starting a pyramid begins at the lowest income ropes. That is where the most housing is needed and if we have 17 million people, you will find out that 75 per cent of that fall within the low income rope which is maybe housing that is worth from zero to N8 or N10 million. Now, is that possible in Nigeria today?
Do you have research facilities today to provide research into all these? Maybe the researches are not coming out or that they are not being used. But we need to go into cheaper production of houses if we want to be able to house this population. We need to provide adequate mortgage. Yes, we have the federal mortgage, finance and federal mortgage of Nigeria, but how many access mortgage services from them? That is the issue,” Ubosi averred.
