Why cost of housing is increasingly becoming expensive — Akinlusi

The Director of Greenstem Group and former President, Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria, Adeniyi Akinlusi, has expressed concern over the rising cost of building, blaming the situation on the current economic crisis.

He lamented that with the current economic situation, cost of housing is increasingly becoming expensive.

In an interview with the African International Housing Show, Akinlusi, as sighted by the Nigerian Tribune, blamed the issue of rising house costs on imported building materials, advocating for the use of local building materials as an effective way to reduce costs.

He said:”A lot of our building materials are imported and if you factor that into housing, it becomes unaffordable.

“We need to start exploring our local building materials as this can be an effective way of reducing costs.”

Talking about housing reform that Nigeria requires, the former MBAN boss said it includes land and infrastructure

According to him, another area of reform the government can tap into is the provision of social housing for those who are not financially buoyant.

“Rental housing is another area to look out for, most people want a decent house and are not just concerned about owning the house,” he said.

He said the Minister of Housing would need a lot of support to make homeownership easy in Nigeria, especially Abuja

“We know the importance of model mortgage foreclosure law has been domesticated in certain states. But one would expect homeownership to be easy here in Abuja the state capital, but reverse is the case.

“Government is the biggest employer of labour, and it is bad that those who work with the government cannot buy a home and own it, not because they don’t have a Federal Mortgage Bank, but if the house cannot be mortgaged then the aim is defeated.

“Another aspect of the model mortgage foreclosure law is that it has a provision that every state must have its own law.

“We need the National Assembly to support this administration and the ministry.

“There’s also an issue of titling, now that we have an action minister of the FCT, we expect that the issue of titling will be addressed for good, “At a point we proposed the ministry every month should publish tittles signed by the minister, no matter the amount, it is important for us to see the effort as this will connote accountability. This is also applicable to states as well.”

According to him, the National Assembly must look at the recapitalization of the Federal Mortgage Bank

“This is because we cannot have a Federal Mortgage Bank with shareholders’ funds which are eroded. It needs to be recapitalized for the role it’s playing,” he said.

He also canvassed for the passage a number of mortgage-related bills before the National Assembly, adding that there’s a need to have the mortgage guarantee company to support the mortgage banking industry and commercial banks.

 “So that if you give mortgages, the idea is that if in the loan there’s a default before you realize it, you can get liquidity from the mortgage guarantee company. This is very important in ensuring the mortgage system works effectively,” he said.

He emphasised that a lot of laws l require review. This, he said, comprised the NHF laws, the laws guiding mortgage banks, and the NHF structure itself.

“We need to put the right reforms in place, provide an enabling environment to thrive and support what we need to achieve.

“We need to attract capital, the federal government will not have enough money for housing, and a lot of money will have to come from private sources, both within and outside the country.

“We must reduce homelessness and ensure people live in decent houses,” he said.

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