High Rent: COREN Tasks FCTA On Satellite Towns Dev

The Council for the
Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), has urged the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to fast-track the development of infrastructure in the satellites towns, to check the high cost of accommodation in the nation’s capital.
President of COREN, Mr. Kashim Ali, who made this known to jJournalists in Abuja, attributed the prohibitive cost of rented accommodation in the FCT to the high cost of land and building materials.
Ali said that massive development of satellite towns would provide the people access to buy land to build their own houses.
“In Abuja, there should be more efforts in the development of satellite towns. Government should embark on massive development of infrastructure in the satellite towns.
“That way, people would have access to land and people can easily buy plots of land to build their own houses”, he said.
Ali noted that most completed housing estates in Abuja were unoccupied because of the high rent demanded by the estate developers whose aim was to earn more profits from their investment.
“Some of these houses are built using bank loans. So, the owners want to pay their debt and in the process overcharge.
“They charge high rents in order to make profit from their investments, many people cannot afford to pay the high rents, and so the estates remain unoccupied,” Ali said.