Breaking affordability jinx: MIDC builds bungalows for N4.5m
Multi-purpose Infrastructure Development Company (MIDC) has proved that affordable or low-cost housing delivery is not rocket science with its Teju Royal Garden estate where one-bedroom and two-bedroom bungalows, respectively, sell for N2.5 million and N4.5 million per unit.
Teju Royal Garden, a 1,000-housing unit estate sitting on 102 acres of land, is being financed by Abbey Building Society – one of Nigeria’s leading primary mortgage banks (PMBs) – which is also providing mortgage facility for prospective house buyers from the estate.
Conducting journalists round the project site recently, Emmanuel Obire, MDIC’s MD/CEO, disclosed that Abbey Building, which is their lead partner on the project, was committed to its early delivery, adding that the mortgage bank also shared his company’s mission to provide affordable homes for Nigerians.
“Abbey is providing buyers mortgages based on the National Housing Fund (NHF) which charges 6 percent interest rate, but while the NHF application is still being processed, the bank will provide an interim commercial mortgage on which interest rate is within the region of 18-20 percent,” he said.
Located between two great institutions – the Lagos State University and the Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria – along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, Lagos, Teju Royal Garden, a joint venture project between the Tejuosho Royal Family and MIDC, is focused at low-income earners.
Obire explained that they have been able to keep the cost of the houses low by making them functional and not necessarily big, adding that they have also been able to control other variables such as the cost of land acquisition and infrastructure provision.
“We have been involved in various housing deliveries, high and low, and because of my background as a trained structural engineer, we have been able to put together bit and pieces of what it takes to deliver affordable homes. This begins with the design in which you must start with houses that are functional, but not too big in order to be able to bring down the cost,” he said.
The estate with an estimated cost of N2.7 billion, he said, offers different house-types including 100 units of one-bedroom bungalows, 200 units of two-bedroom bungalows, and 450 units of detached and semi-detached three-bedroom bungalows, giving a total of 750 housing units for the first phase of the projects which will be delivered by December this year.
The second phase of the project made up of 75 serviced plots and 250 housing units comprising two-bedroom flats, three-bedroom flats and terrace houses will be completed by December 2014.
On the pricing of the housing units, Obire said, “One-bedroom goes for N2.5 million, two-bedroom N4.5 million, three-bedroom semi-detached N6.5 million, and three-bedroom detached N7.5 million. There will also be blocks of flats in the next phase of the project where two-bedroom will be selling for N4 million while the three-bedroom will sell for N6 million. These will be on two-storey buildings.”
According to him, one of the major high points of this estate is the employment it has created for the locals, explaining that on daily basis, the estate employs about 300 workers who are on a combined average payment of N500,000-N750,000.
“This is a significant contribution to GDP. So, if government makes a conscious effort to invest in housing and infrastructure, addressing unemployment is no longer an issue,” he noted.
He disclosed that his company is also considering the development of another scheme in the Lekki axis which they will call Transformation Village, assuring that they would be building houses with entry price of N1.8 million which is targeted at artisans.
“When the project starts, we will get the artisans to own homes there because housing should not be used to differentiate classes,” he added.
By: Chuka Uroko