Stakeholder Decries Absence Of Measures In Tackling Housing Dev

An architect, Victor
Amadi, has expressed worries over non-existence of stable and concrete policy to tackle housing development in Rivers State.
He said that it is a thing of concern and worries that many past administrations in the state did not take the issue of housing development, particularly the social/affordable housing scheme seriously, inspite of the deficit.
Amadi who was speaking on the state of housing in Rivers State while interacting with The Tide in Port Harcourt, said that so many things were involved in housing provision, adding that government  had to intervene especially for the masses.
He said “Delay in the issuance of titles and certificates of occupancy, minimal access to credit for private developers and failure of government to regulate rent have grossly caused high rents and development difficulties.
According to him, most of the unoccupied housing estates were privately built, and the rent could not be within the reach of the poor class.
“There is no regulatory mechanism to compel private developers to rent out their houses with a given period because it is not within the purview of government.
“Housing is one of the basic needs of life, as good housing leads to higher productivity and self- esteem, if you are well housed, you have better health,” he said.
The archited also observed that there are lots of conditions that poor people could not meet in accessing the mortgage finance funds which were also insufficient in the face of increasing demand.

Corlins Walter