‘24m Nigerians Will Be Homeless In 2016’

About 24.4 million
people in Nigeria have been estimated to be without homes by the end of next year if nothing is done by the government and other private partners in the housing sector, an estate Surveyor and Valuer, Mr. Clement Elendu has said.
The valuer, who was speaking with The Tide in Port Harcourt on addressing housing deficit in Nigeria remarked that the current home ownership rate in Nigeria is very low, when compared to other countries.
According to him, available statistics within the African continent show that Benin Republic and Kenya have home ownership rate of 63 and 73 per cent respectively, while Nigeria is still at 25 per cent.
He opined that something needed to be done urgently to save the situation, adding that this development indicates that the government’s housing policy has not been working as expected.
Elendu insisted that the deficit would continue to rise until the financial authorities are able to bring down the interest rates to enable low income earners to access mortgage loan.
The real estate expert also blamed the poor housing delivery in Nigeria on the short mortgage tenure system that is obtainable in the country.
According to him, only a few primary mortgage institutions in the country give mortgage loans that are repayable beyond 10 years period.
Elendu, however, commended the various effort being made by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration towards tackling the housing challenges in the country, but added that the country needed more than N56 trillion to be able to bridge the deficit.