As the federal government strengthens its efforts to resolve the challenges currently facing the provision of adequate housing in the country, the United Kingdom’s housing strategy, where both ownership and rental have been the stronghold of the system for several decades, is likely to be adopted by the present administration in order to considerably reduce the estimated 17 million housing deficit in Nigeria.
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola hinted this while addressing one of the leading professional bodies in the Nigerian real estate industry, the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, NIESV, in Abuja lately.
The minister reminded the group of the role Nigeria recently played as host to a delegation of several African ministers at the HABITAT III United Nations summit at the International Conference Centre on February 24 to 26 in Abuja.
According to the statement issued by his special adviser on Communications, Mr. Hakeem Bello, the minister indicated that “in countries like the UK, where there is a successful housing scheme that has run for almost a hundred years, only about 64 percent have become home owners while about 36 percent still live in rented accommodation.
“This mixture of housing, comprising ownership and rental, is the strategy that must be addressed in detail to deal with the housing deficit.
“Therefore, we must talk about affordable housing not only in terms of access to government housing for purchase, but also in terms of privately owned houses for rent,” he said.
Fashola also recalled that at the end of the sessions, a document titled ‘ABUJA Declaration’ was issued, which represented a common front of African nations about how they propose to deal with urbanisation.
Some of the instructive issues addressed in the document concerned familiar topics such as housing, rural planning, mobility, transportation, water supply and clean air to mention a …Read More
Source:: Nigerian Pilot
