‘Affordable housing delivery starts from linking design to prevailing living conditions’

Delivering or providing affordable housing for low-income earners in Nigeria has remained a sing-song that has failed to achieve the desired result because of a number of limiting factors which include non-alignment of the interests of the various stakeholders such as developers, commercial and mortgage banks on the one hand and the intended beneficiaries on the other.

There are instances of schemes that started out as affordable housing, but ended up delivering houses that are neither accessible not affordable to the intended beneficiaries on account of the design, finishing and the pricing or cost of acquiring the houses.

In order to check this trend and succeed in truly delivering affordable housing, Dele Martins, the Group Managing Director, HFP Engineering Limited, has advised that the design of affordable housing should start from prevailing living conditions and without transforming the prevailing culture or way of living of the beneficiaries.

“The design should simply aim to put in more order, structure and functionality, as well as, the basic facilities which any dwelling unit should have”, he said in his keynote address on ‘Affordable Housing Delivery in Nigeria’ at  the Knightstone Properties’ new brand identity launch and Brand Ambassador unveiling event.

Martins who was represented at the event by Layi Omojola,  Managing Director, Collaborative Partnership, explained that  an individual whose income level can only support a bedsit or face-me-I-face-you apartment, would not be able to afford a one bedroom flat and an affordable housing scheme based on one bedroom flats would simply disenfranchise him. 

“In essence there is a need to work to a predetermined answer starting from a clear definition of what constitutes affordable housing not only in Nigeria as a whole but in each sub-region or division of Nigeria. What is affordable in Lagos State may constitute luxury in Oyo State and what is affordable in Badagry will differ from what is affordable in Ikorodu and each case depends on the prevailing socio-economic conditions in each locality or sub-division”, he said.

Continuing, he advised that  “after determining what is affordable for each locality or region, an appropriate design of house should now be made to fit the benchmark for the relevant area. As much as possible, the construction materials to be used should come from the locality or region in which the affordable housing is to be constructed so that employment is generated for the local people and cost of construction fits the relevant local profile. In fact, local artisans and contractors should be encouraged to form themselves into cooperatives to bid for the supply of local construction materials”.

According to him, once we have a tailor made design of house that links affordability to prevailing income and earning capacity, all stakeholders on the supply side including banks, mortgage institutions and developers led and galvanized by Government should work towards delivering housing that is within the predetermined budget that is affordable to the target beneficiary.

The Nigerian housing market remains an investment destination because of the huge opportunities it offers by virtue of the wide  housing demand-supply gap estimated at 17 million units. Private sector efforts at bridging this gap which leans heavily on low cost or affordable housing are yet to yielded fruit.

This is because of unfavourable government policies, lack of mortgages for potential buyers and unstable investment environment; difficulties and lack of transparency associated with acquiring affordable land for the development of affordable housing, as well as, the bureaucracy associated with obtaining title documents for acquired or transferred land.

Though Martins believes that government does not need to build or provide funds, but create an enabling environment and ensure that everybody plays by fair and transparent rules, he admits that government has the lion share of the responsibility in setting and enforcing the necessary policies that ensure that the goal of providing affordable housing is achieved.

“The fact that government controls all land within its jurisdiction should make it easy to knock practically all other stakeholders on the supply side into line and ensure that they deliver products that  are affordable to the ultimate target beneficiary”, he advised.