Surveyors Move To Curb Home Conversion …Want Owner-Occupier Policy

Members of the Nigerian Institution of estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) have called on government to pursue owner-occupy housing policy to discourage conversion of homes for commercial purposes.
The body made this submission in a communiqué issued at the end of its Annual Housing Summit in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital, recently.
They argued that owner-occupy housing policy would also encourage neighbourhood development.
The group noted that homes conversion was a threat to housing stock as it reduces residential housing and urged government to come up with tight control measures to restrict conversion of homes to commercial purposes as is the norm in many big cities in the country.
They suggested that government should also develop statutory housing strategies that would increase the supply of homes, which they pointed out would address the menace of homelessness and overcrowding in the urban centres.
Furthermore, the estate surveyors and valuers encouraged government to fully unbundle the nation’s mortgage system in a manner that would ensure key players in the sector perform speciallised roles and urged the government to follow up on the N500 billion recapitalization of the federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) observing that it would widen the nation’s housing finance manager.
Speaking from the sidelines, the second Vice Chairman, NIESV, Mr. Emma Wike, enjoined the Federal Government to employ qualified professionals in the execution of its planned 10,000 housing units in all states of the federation.
Wike also called for the appointment of estate surveyors as project managers to housing projects, stressing that the estate surveyor, “remains the most qualified professional to hand any building project in the country.

Tonye Nria-Dappa