This development is worrisome in view of the huge housing deficit in Nigeria. Yet there is an increasing number of vacant homes; buildings that should have families albeit unoccupied in major cities across the country.
This ugly trend has become more rampant especially in high brow and middle brow areas of the cities. Other pointers to this malady are high cost of building materials, land, lack of infrastructural facilities, inability to access fund, among others
According to reports, annual house rents range from N500,000 to N1 million for 2/3 bedroom flats in places like FESTAC, Surulere and other middle income areas of Lagos, we are not even talking about the high brow areas yet.
The landlords appear greedier in Abuja as it costs between N2.5 million and N3 million to rent a two-bed bungalow in high brow areas such as Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse and Garki, while it costs between N400,000 and N700,000 to rent a two-bed room apartment in the satellite towns such as Kubwa, Lugbe and Karu areas per annum.
It’s a separate ball game in the oil-rich garden city of Port Harcourt, where one-bedroom flat costs N250, 000 to N350, 000 per annum, depending on the location. Also, a two-bedroom flat goes for between N400,000 and N650, 000 per annum, while a three-bedroom flat and four-bedroom bungalow cost between N800, 000 and N1.3 million per annum, respectively.
Regardless of the questions raised above, it still doesn’t change the fact that economic hardship and poverty in the country is on the loose.
If a worker ought not spend more than 30 percent of his/her income on rent according to UN standard then a situation where a Nigerian civil servant pays 60 percent of his income on house is near-suicidal. It sure has a spiral effect. His general well being as well as his psyche will be on the line.
By the time you spend more than 30 percent of your earnings on rents, it simply means the houses are not affordable.
Little wonder we have lots of beautiful buildings that have been completed but with no life because of the exorbitant prices they are tagged, either for rent or sale.
Analysts believe that lack of property tax regime is partly responsible for the increasing cases of unoccupied buildings littering the cities. They posited that property tax will provide a check on greedy property owners and alleviate the sufferings of tenants who can’t afford the high cost of accommodation being demanded.
A way out of this could be the imposition of special taxes on properties that are vacant for years. This could force owners of such properties to reduce the cost of rent to attract prospective tenants.
It is sheer insensitivity for a landlord to lock a house for years just because the masses can’t afford the rent price. What happened to reducing rent to alleviate the plights of the average Nigerian? They don’t stand to lose anything anyways, after all the houses are owned by very wealthy people or stand unaffected even if no one pays to live in their properties for years untold.
However, if they are made to pay government such taxes for abandoning their buildings, it could be used as a veritable tool to put pressure on them to rent out the houses. And if they still prefer to pay such taxes even if it will be on the high side then their attitude would have shifted from sheer insensitivity to cruelty.
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