When the renewal of house rent approaches the due date, to ordinary Nigerians, the thought of how to pay another rent often comes with trepidation. The reason for this is not far-fetched. There has been a mismatch between the income of a majority of Nigerians and their needs. It is also a known fact that at a point in life, getting a house becomes critical to people’s life and this need should not ordinarily become a burden to the people if the system where they intend to continuously survive had not failed in the housing policy.
The successive governments have created a huge gap in the housing sub sector that seems to be eating up the system. Many Nigerians have complained to Rulers’ World about their inability to afford renewing their rents as rents have been raised beyond their capacity. Some are dismayed over undue service charges being levied for new apartments. “Starting up a life as a young graduate is not easy because I am not sure I can sustain payment of rent”, Jide Adeleke, a young university graduate who teaches in a private school said.
The cost of renting the various categories varies from location to location in Nigeria. They are higher in commercial cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt extending to some other cosmopolitan cities like Ibadan, Enugu, Owerri, Abeokuta, Ilorin, Akure etc. Zenith Akor, a law Chambers Secretary in Ibadan explained how she had struggled to rent a one-room Brazilian type of house, popularly called “face-me and face-you” but got either a sub-standard house at a high price or a refurbished one at an extremely high rate. She said she was confused when an agent told her she was going to pay a total of N82, 000 for a newly rented one-room apartment.
The tenants who occupy multi-tenanted apartments or estates are not left out of this trend as service charges on these apartments have experienced a major increase from waste disposal, cleaning, electricity, guards etc. Some of the occupants of these types of apartments that Rulers’ World had a chat with said the service charges on the properties they occupy have been increased by 50 to 100 percent.
According to the World Bank report 2018, Nigeria had a housing deficit of 17 million and this has a serious effect on the housing needs of Nigerians. Many residents in the Federal Capital Territory have consistently lamented the difficulty involved in getting accommodation due to the high cost and a few, who do, are asked to make advance payment of two or three years. Accommodation in the city ranges from N1.5 million to N4 million depending on the size. This has made many opt for accommodation in satellite towns like Nyanya, Kubwa, Lugbe, Kuje, among others.
A bill seeking to have effective rent control for FCT residents is before the Nigerian Senate. Senator Smart Adeyemi, who presented the bill addressed journalists after the plenary and said the legislation is borne out of the realization that landlords in the FCT compel tenants to pay one or two years advance rent payment before granting them keys to their apartments. By this bill, Nigerians especially Abuja residents will now be paying rent on a monthly basis after the expiration of the initial three months.
Lagos State Government was first to rise up to the defense of the masses by revisiting Lagos rent law and recently made an amendment that ensures no landlord collects more than one year rent from Lagos residents.
Mr. Segun Adekunjo, a businessman, said, “it is high time State Governments made an effective rent control so that Nigerians will not be sleeping in worship centers”. He therefore calls other states to intensify legislative effort and action that will reduce the pain of the suffering masses. He said further that the government has given enormous power to house owners because they know that the government is not ready to help the citizens.
It is difficult to imagine the anguish of a man who is unable to provide his family with a shelter in his country despite working with the government. How would a man who has failed for months to pay his rent feel despite repeated demands from the owner of the house when he truly desires to pay if he had the capacity?
