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An expert surveyor and ex-president of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), Mr Segun Ajanlekoko, has noted that increase in population without a corresponding increase in infrastructural development has led to housing problems in Nigeria.

Making this known in a report on the challenges bedevilling the housing sector in Nigeria, Mr Ajanlekoko, opined that the rate of urbanisation in Nigeria had witnessed tremendous increase in the last two decades, adding that census in the early 50s showed that there were about 56 cities in the country but that only about 10.6 per cent of the total population lived in those cities.

He however disclosed that this rose dramatically to 19.1 per cent in 1963 and 24.5 per cent in 1985, while noting that today, urban population constituted about 30 per cent.

“The rapid growth rate of urban population in Nigeria since the early seventies was mainly due to immigrating induced by the concentration of the gains from the oil sector in the urban areas.

“Given the expected increases in urban population, the magnitude of housing problem in the country is enormous. According to the National Rolling Plan (NRP) the national housing requirement is between 500,000 and 600,000 units considering the prevailing occupancy ratio of between three and four persons per room,” he remarked.

He insisted that if the estimated annual housing requirement was to be provided at an average of N500,000 per unit (rather conservative) the costs would be enormous and indeed unrealisable.

The experienced surveyor further posited that the cost of providing housing alone would be between N250 trillion and N300 trillion (excluding the cost of infrastructural development).

“This is to say that the government and mortgage institutions will need this much as capital base to effectively tackle the housing situation. The phenomenal rise in population and number and size of our cities over the past few years have manifested in the acute shortage of dwelling units which has resulted in overcrowding, high rents, poor urban living conditions, and low infrastructure services and indeed high crime rates,” he argued.

Also according to him, on the micro-level, it has been observed that house ownership is one of the first priorities for most households and it represents the largest single investment for most (between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of household income).

He therefore posited that the observation became very significant when it was realized that per capital income as well as the real income of the average Nigerian had been on the decline.