Proposed monthly rent: Lagos assures protection of investors, landlords

Following the proposed monthly rent scheme which is due to begin this month, the Lagos State Government has assured investors and landlords that it will protect them against any default or abuse from any quarter.

This is coming in order to douse the tension among real estate developers and landlords, who have become agitated over the new policy.

Allaying the fear of investors, landlords and tenants, Lagos State’s Commissioner for Housing, Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, said that government was working on a system to make sure that they are protected, explaining that legislation would be put in place to ensure that default rate was reduced and, where it occurred, would be dealt with expeditiously.

The commissioner said the idea was to ensure that the whole process was transparent and also to give investors comfort to invest in the state’s housing market.

Justifying the policy, Akinderu-Fatai explained that the government was encouraged to come up with the scheme because most of those who rent their accommodation in the state are of the working class who don’t earn their salaries yearly, but monthly.

“Since we earn monthly not yearly; how then do you ask people to pay yearly? In most cases, it is not favourable to both sides; it is easier to pay for a year or one and a half years, but by the time it finishes, it will not be easy to pay, not because you don’t plan for it but because of the situation of the country,” Akinderu-Fatai said.

Special Adviser on Housing, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, at a forum recently, explained that the new initiative is a social investment scheme initiated by the state government to ease the burden of yearly rent payment on Lagos residents.

She explained further that tenants who are interested in the scheme must be able to meet some requirements which include the capacity to pay on a monthly basis, stressing that the scheme will begin with those in the formal sector after which the informal sector will be brought on board.

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