Lagos high-rise buildings aimed to close social inequality gap

Lagos State government has promised to construct more high-rise buildings under its urban regeneration scheme.

Bosun Jeje, the state commissioner for housing, who disclosed this at a ministerial press briefing recently, added that the state government would, under the scheme, convert more bungalows to high-rise buildings in some areas it deemed convenient.

It is expected that the building of the high-rise houses will attract the middle class in society to an otherwise low-income settlement, thereby closing social inequality gap.

This initiative is also expected to encourage co-habitation of the low- and middle-class members of the society, ensuring social cohesion and harmony in communities.

The 11-floor urban regeneration residential development in Isale Gangan in Central Lagos is an example of the new scheme in which the state government also is showing that high-rise residences are the way of the future.

The development being handled by Anatolia International Limited for the state government consists of nine residential floors with a total of 54 flats made up of 36 two-bedroom flats and 18 three-bedroom flats.

Each floor contains six flats made up of four two-bedroom flats and two three-bedroom flats, while the ground and first floors are for parking lots.

The commissioner appealed to residents within the metropolis to have patience, as government would soon commence allocation of houses in already completed estates, assuring that the houses would be very affordable when the prices were rolled out.

He said the state government was committed to providing affordable homes for the residents, which explains its public private partnership (PPP) with some private developers that had given rise to Elegant Court, Ikota and CHOIS Gardens Abijo.

The commissioner informed that the state had created Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD) to check the activities of fake estate agents, adding that the Lagos Home Ownership and Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS), in the mortgage unit of his ministry, was expected to aid in providing affordable housing for residents. The commissioner, who briefed the press on the activities of his ministry in the past 12 months, listed the ministry’s other achievements as policy initiatives and projects as well as consolidation of existing achievements such as effective management of all the ministry’s housing estates to ensure sustainability.

According to him, the state within the year also commenced the construction of prototype multiple housing units under the Lagos HOMS project with the aim of building 242 blocks, consisting of 2,624 housing units of one, two and three bedroom flats.

“These Lagos HOMS will also promote oxygen replenishment and reduction of concentration of green house gases,” he said, refuting allegations that the state government was demolishing houses on site of the expected 1008-unit estate in Ijora-Badia.

ODINAKA MBONU