We have provided affordable houses for LagosHOMS, says Fashola

In response to critics of the Lagos State Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (LagosHOMS) who contend that the houses so far provided by the state government are not low-cost and therefore not affordable, the state governor, Babatunde Fashola, says both the houses and the scheme are quite affordable.

The governor, who gave this response at the third draw for applicants to the mortgage scheme recently, explained that the houses and the scheme are affordable because as against the prevailing 18-20 percent interest rate charged on mortgage loans, LagosHOMS gives loans at 9.5 percent interest rate.

He added that the houses are cheap because buyers have choices to make from the different house-types which include three-bedroom, two-bedroom and one-bedroom apartments, pointing out that buyers can pay over a period of 10 years and that buying the houses is better than paying to the landlord.

Fashola explained further that the houses are not low-cost because “the critics who want low-cost houses have not provided me with low-cost cement, low-cost rods, low-cost roofing sheets for the houses”.

It was an ecstatic moment for 76 applicants who emerged winners in the 3rd draw conducted by the Lagos Mortgage Board, the body set up by the state government to manage the affairs of the scheme.

The first draw for the scheme, which was conducted on March 4, 2014, produced 27 winners out of which 22 have paid their 30 percent equity contribution while four have completed everything and moved into their homes. The second draw in April had seen 11 winners pay the 30 percent equity contribution, four winners have closed their deal, while 15 more closings are scheduled for next week.

In her opening remarks at yesterday’s draw, Bola Fashola, LagosHOMS executive director, Operations, disclosed that a total of 156 applicants applied for homes in eight schemes at various locations in the state.

These schemes, she said, included Adetoun Mustapha Estate and Olaitan Mustapha Estate, both in Ojokoro; CHOIS Gardens in Abijo; Oba Adegboruwa Estate and Rotimi Shotomiwa Estate, both in Igbogbo; Shitta Estate in Surulere; Shogunro Scheme 1 in Ogba and Michael Otedola Estate in Odorangushi, Epe.

According to Fashola, of the 156 applicants, 102 were successfully pre-qualified for yesterday’s draw, pointing out that 56 applicants were not pre-qualified on account of documentation.

“For this draw, there are 200 available homes and 334 others carried over from March and April, making it a total of 554 homes available for applicants to win from,” she said.

The Lagos mortgage scheme is the state government’s interventionist strategy in the state’s housing problem which shows a housing deficit of over 2 million housing units and over 60 percent of the state’s 18 million people living in rented accommodation.

When the scheme was launched early this year, Governor Fashola announced that 200 housing units would be won every month by successful applicants to the mortgage scheme through a draw.

LagosHOMS has been described as a pace-setting initiative with its available housing stock, near-single-digit interest rate of 9.5 percent and long loan repayment tenor of 10 years.

Chuka Uroko