FCT Residents Attribute Housing Problem To High Rent

Residents of the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) have attributed non occupation of some houses and estates in Abuja city centre and its environs to high cost of rent.
Observers in the metropolis have noted  also that many houses in Asokoro, Maitama, Wuse, Garki are unoccupied  and that civil servants find it difficult  to live in the city centre because of the high cost of accommodation.
An Estate developer, Mr. Ola Adebayo, has said that a self  contained room in Statellite towns such  as Kubwa, Dutse, Lugbe, Karu and Nyanya goes for between N200,000 and N300,000.
According to him, the same type of accommodation costs  between N450,000 and N800,000 in Gwarimpa, Wuse, Maitama,  Asokoro and other settlements within the city centre.
Adebayo however notes that the massive demolition of houses in the FCT in 2006 without a provision for alternative settlement induced significant  increase in house rents.
He, however, urged the FCT Administration and the area councils of the FCT to allocate lands to genuine  estate developers who are willing to build affordable houses.
For Nuru Mohammed, a civil servant, said one of the major responsibilities of any government in any part of the World  was to provide shelter for the citizens.
He, however,  bemoaned the inability of the government to meet workers’ expectation in terms  of provision of affordable housing.
Investigations revealed that one bedroom flat in some  areas  of the city cost as much as N700,000 per  annum, while an accommodation of the same category  in Asokoro, Maitama, Gwarimpa, Wuse, and  Garki II attract more than N1 million.
Many useful man hours are daily lost, as some workers often get to office late and tired because they live in faraway  places.