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FG must invest in affordable housing for it to thrive in Nigeria — Expert

A United Kingdom property expert, Mayowa Oluyede, has stated that the Federal Government must invest in affordable housing for it to thrive in Nigeria.

Oluyede, who is the founder of MS Estates in the UK, shared his perspective on the effectiveness of affordable housing in Nigeria while speaking to Tribune Online on Wednesday evening.

The expert, citing the example of the United Kingdom’s homes built by councils, explained that tenants who have lived for a certain number of years in any of these homes are given the right to buy the property at a discounted amount.

According to him, “The Government of the United Kingdom can even help the tenant to buy the property with a loan of 20 per cent if 25 per cent is being requested, for instance.”

Meanwhile, he noted that the local governments in Nigeria are not yet empowered to provide such support, even though the system is gradually being improved with recent steps towards financial autonomy.

“For affordable housing to thrive in Nigeria, the government must be intentional about it; they must be able to invest in it. For instance, in the United Kingdom, many homes built in past decades are called council homes or property.

“At the time of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the UK government introduced a policy allowing those in council homes the right to buy.

“As a tenant, you can buy your council property, and it will be sold at a discount after you have lived there for a stipulated number of years. These are homes built by local authorities.”

“Mind you! Nigerian local systems are not really effective. They don’t have much power to do so much. But the power is being given to them gradually now.”

“You have access to funding in the United Kingdom, and the government even came up with a scheme called Help-To-Buy. The government can help you buy a property. If you need to buy a property and put down a 25 per cent deposit, for instance, the government can give you 20 per cent as a loan,” he said.

In the same vein, Mayowa lamented the lack of a tracking system in the country and the absence of support for citizens to ease business operations.

He gave an example of receiving personal computers free of charge and apprentices when he started his real estate business 20 years ago in the United Kingdom.

“We don’t have a tracking system in Nigeria, and we are not giving our citizens anything back.

“I remember when I started the real estate business in the United Kingdom, the government gave me personal computers for free. They gave me apprentices—people who could work for me for one year and be paid almost nothing just to grow because they knew that if I trained them for one year, I might want to employ them,” he said.

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