‘Mass employment key to mortgage access and homeownership’

James Omeru, president of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), in this interview with KEHINDE AKINTOLA, says the whole idea of mass, low-cost or affordable housing will make meaning only when those who need such housing are gainfully employed to enable them access mortgage and buy houses. He also speaks on social housing, building collapse, among other issues. Excerpts:

Roadmap as newly elected NIESV president 

My roadmap is to ensure discipline in the profession; to take the profession to another level that will be recognised in all areas of our practice, especially facility management. It is very easy to put facilities together, especially roads, buildings, hotels but eventually they are not managed well. We are saying that estate surveyors and valuers should be invited to manage roads. When we talk of road maintenance, we mean public buildings. Estate surveyors will do it better for you than when you engage people for political patronage. We are advising government to recognise that estate surveyors are specialists in these areas of facility management such that you should leave these things in their hands. It’s not enough to build, maintenance is key in order for the public to enjoy these facilities.

 Government’s synergy with NIESV on mass housing delivery

Mass housing, as I always say, has to do with employment. The issue of unemployment must be solved first before you start talking about mass housing and mortgage because these things are tied together for low-income workers and others, but if there is no full employment and your income cannot take you home, it can’t even pay for a house.

You cannot redeem your mortgage unless there is full employment. The issue of mortgage and housing will always lag behind. So, we must find a way to solve the issue of unemployment, then it will be easy for people to get mortgage, it will be easy to procure land to build, because without land you cannot talk of housing. So government must first and foremost provide land, service plots and give to people at good rates. If you give to people, you can now service the mortgage and you must do a lot of supervision to get it through.

If not, what government is doing now by giving land to individuals who call themselves developers but just plot-out the land and rip-off the public cannot solve the issue of housing. Alternatively, you can talk of social housing for the citizens because they must be housed. That way, government will just provide houses and allocate to them. If you are talking of social housing, even if you don’t have employment, you will be provided roof over your head no matter how small it is. That’s our position on social housing.

 Building collapse in the country

Building collapse has to do with the entire system of corruption where people, including contractors and engineers, cut corners. They are swayed from what they should do in terms of supervision to ensure standards and specifications are maintained. So, as long as the whole system is corrupt, we will continue to have building collapse. People who should supervise are compromised and those who build cut corners in terms of cost and others. These are the issues causing building collapse.

It’s like every other thing. The only way to help is for people to have a change of heart and have the fear of God. If you are a contractor and you are building a house, maintain standard because in the future, if there are collapses, you will kill your fellow human beings. So, if you love your neighbour as yourself, you will build these houses to standard and these are issues we must preach continuously. It has to do with conscience.

 Challenges facing NIESV

As estate surveyors, we have challenges of quackery. It rubs off negatively on all professionals because quacks are all over the place, duping unsuspecting members of the public who are always there looking for houses because of shortfall we have in housing. They take advantage of the housing problems and dupe people. Generally, people think that every agent is an estate surveyor, but luckily we are tackling all these things; we have registered Estate Agents Association in Nigeria, where we will bring all these people under control so that each person will now know his level in housing delivery.