Estate Surveyors Advocate Building Industry Transformation

Estate Surveyors in Port Harcourt have thrown their support for the total transformation of the built-environment, insisting that housing should no longer  be seen as mere provision of shelter, but as an instrument of transforming the entire economy.

Some of the estate professionals, who interacted with The Tide on ways of tackling the numerous challenges confronting the housing industry, are of the view that time has come when government should exploit the built-environment, and use it to empower Nigerian youth, as well as generate employment.

One of the professionals, Mr. Femi Aiko, stated that estate surveyors and valuers occupy a strategic position in the housing industry in particular, and the built-environment in general, but regretted that this appears to have eluded the understanding and recognition of government, from one regime to another.

Femi highlighted some of the challenges facing the industry which included absence of workable and implementable housing policy, access to land and mortgage system, under capacity of the construction sector and the reliance on imported building materials among others.

He, therefore, posited that time has come where a new initiative to promote youth employment using housing and construction sector will be championed by both the state and the federal government.

For Bethel Ejiorfor, who is also an estate surveyor and runs an estate surveying firm; Bethel Ejiofor and Partners, stated that surveyors must champion the new initiative in transformation of housing sector, pointing out that such moves will go a long way to arouse the interest of government authorities at both state and federal.

According to him, estate professionals had submitted a position paper on land and housing matters recently to the presidency and hoped that such will give room for further dialogue on the changes expected.

Corlins Walter