It is no secret that the real estate sector in Nigeria is the current oil well. It is not just one of the fastest rising sectors in the country but also one of the most lucrative for investors.
The FCT is where the big players are. This is the place where every real estate company has a presence and track history. They are either years in the game, or the owners are years in the game and left another company’s employment to set up theirs.
It is unlikely for an Abuja resident to go out of their house on a normal day and return in the evening without having encountered real estate marketers handing out fliers with their names and phone numbers written on them. New projects, springing up, new estates, land sales.
Every day, is a day for new projects to begin; some will reach maturity, some will not. But they will be started anyway. So lands will be cleared, trees continue to be felled and plantations continually cleared out despite the apparent threat of desertification and desert encroachment.
Meanwhile, there are over a million houses in Abuja standing empty, never been occupied by anyone. Close to half of Abuja’s estates, fully finished with all infrastructure and amenities remain empty.
A Daily Trust report in 2024 reported that Abuja contributes about 1.7 million to Nigeria’s nation’s overall housing shortage of 28 million units. The city’s rapid population growth, estimated at 8% annually, exacerbates the demand for housing.
Nigeria is battling a 27 million housing deficit with an annual funding of N5 trillion required to solve the situation; yet many residents of Abuja are homeless. Some sleep under bridges while others sleep in their cars and others, move outskirts to surrounding satellite towns like Nyanaya, Marrabaa, Bwari, Kuje, Lugbe etc.
Thousands of completed buildings have remained at varied construction stages for long periods of time across Abuja with some never seeing completion.
Areas like Asokoro, Maitama, Guzape, Jabi, Wuse 2 and Gwarimpa are the prime locations where locked up mansions that are very well-built, tastefully furnished, behind high electrified fences remain empty except for the stern looking security guards guarding them.
Rent in Abuja is insane. It is why housing in Abuja is hardly affordable to any honest-to-God hardworking Nigerian especially in the areas mentioned above. Only the high and mighty, society’s elites, and politicians can afford to live there. living there. The inhabitants of such areas are said to be usually politicians, diplomats, top ranking civil servants and successful businessmen and women.
Still, there are empty houses there.
Today, everyone is in real estate either full time of part time. If they are not building houses or selling land, they are the brokers in the middle. Abuja is nurturing a real estate sector that no one will occupy.
And the brokers! Ah, the brokers they are the real definition of middle men. In rent, they charge inspection fees and a percentage of the rent as agency fees; all of which will be paid by YOU the tenant. Sometimes, they even set the rent twice or three times the actual rent charged by the house owner.
In essence, here we are; Nigerians, stuck in the middle between house owners and house agents; completely at their mercy.
What exactly is it that makes housing unaffordable in Abuja? Is it the cost of land or is it the cost of building materials? How sensible is it to sell a house or plot of land for billions of naira in a country that has no strong economic pillar like Nigeria?
I belong to a real estate WhatsApp group, which is coordinated by one of my many sons. His real estate management business covers Abuja and some few northern states. Even houses in Kano and Abuja are now being sold for hundreds of millions or billions of naira. And rent is now in millions too.
What exactly is the determinant cost of houses?
Daily Trust’s 2024 report stated that 90 per cent of building materials are imported and when developers spend millions or billions to finish their properties, they have to sell them at the right price to recoup.
Fair enough. But why must developers import building materials? Why must every sector in Nigeria import every input? Why are we not looking inwards and developing our own building materials? Wy do people find it easier for them to let the houses rot away than lease them out at affordable rates? It is mind-boggling.
What building materials are they importing? Cement, steel rods, granite, sand, roofing sheets, paint are the major building materials. But surely these materials cannot be imported! who would import cement when there is Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, Ashaka Cement and a host of about ten other brands? Who would import granite much less sand when we have them in abundance?
So many questions with very little answers. But the math is not mathing.
There is an urgent need for the Nigerian leadership to pay more attention to tis housing crisis. The Hon. Minister of Housing & Development Arc Ahmed Musa Dangiwa in 2024 said.
We will interface with the owners of the houses, to find out what they want. Do they want to keep these houses? If they want to keep them unoccupied, the government will charge them triple ground rent instead of the single ground rent normally charged with the intent to either make them either rent or sell them out.
Just can’t help but wonder how that is going.
It would be such a catastrophe is the current housing crisis is allowed to continue because it will drag us down much further into the abyss.
All hands and legs must be on deck to combat this crisis. With the current policies and housing reforms the of the Tinubu led administration, we can only remain hopeful and wait to see the positive impact it will create.
Because at the end of the day, housing is a human right. And every nation’s leadership should pay urgent attention to.
Hawwah A Gambo is a Global Scholar, Social Entrepreneur & Politician. She writes from Abuja Nigeria.
