PH Residents Task Banks On Mortgage, Estate Dev

Following escalating cost in house rent, coupled with high cost of property development and other associated problems in housing, some residents of Port Harcourt have called on banks and other financial institutions in Port Harcourt and its environs to rise up to the challenge to bridge the gap in housing need.

Some of the residents who expressed their feelings in respect to various challenges faced by the public on housing in the metropolis posited that time had come for banks and other financial institutions in the state to invest aggressively on housing.

In his own submission, an estate surveyor and valuer in Port Harcourt, Mr. Femi Ajanaku posited that the housing need in Port Harcourt had grown to the level where corporate financial institution ought to begin to massively invest on estate development to meet the housing needs of various categories of workers.

According to Ajanaku, who is also the principal partner of DIVCON Associate, an estate surveyor firm, “Banks and other financial institutions could bridge the gap in this regard by investing in estates as well as provide mortgages for property development.

He said they could in turn recoup the funds through agreed method of deductions from salaries where the workers organisations would serve as security for the banks.

The estate valuer cited examples of such programmes in other states like Lagos where some existing estates were being developed by banks.

He said that banks like Afribank, through the African Estate Company had developed estates, including the Pearl Estate at Ilupeju.

On his part, a building material merchant, Mr. Mike Opara said that it would take an average civil servant about seven years to save money for land acquisition, and another seven years to be able to build a house with the little monthly salary.

He said, given the high cost of materials, that building a house was almost beyond the earnings of civil servants, and that this had made them to be perpetual tenants, pointing out that the sure way to bridge  the gap is through mortgage financing.

Corlins Walter