Nigerian Govt Bows To Pressure, Moves To Regulate Soaring House Rents
Following the soaring accommodation rents in Delta, the State Ministry of Housing has embarked on the registration of housing agents to enable it to regulate their activities.
The ministry is also set to inaugurate a taskforce against agents who charge exorbitant rents in the state, just as a bill to regulate the worrisome soaring rents in metropolitan cities of the state is to be sent to the State House of Assembly.
The State Commissioner for Housing, Rt. Hon. Godknows Angele, stated this when the executives and members of the Asaba Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) paid him a courtesy visit on Tuesday in Asaba.
According to the commissioner, the government may apply moral persuasion on landlords to regulate their rents so as to ensure more affordable accommodation in the state.
“I visited the agents’ office at Macdon in Asaba and they have all been registered with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Commissioner of Police, Delta Command has acknowledged them as a body.
“All this is in a bid to check the excesses of the agents in raising accommodation costs and protecting the residents, particularly low income earners in the state.
“As a government, we are engaging on PPP to crash the rising house rents and by God’s grace, we shall build low costs housing scheme in my time.
“We have 50 units of social housing scheme in Ozoro; 50 units in Kwale, and another 50 units in Owa-Oyibu initiated by the former Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa, for civil servants.
“But when I came in as commissioner, we discovered that each of the 50 units of buildings can accommodate 200 families, so, we must have market, schools, electricity and other facilities, we brought all the bills to review them at the current cost.”
Angele said that the governor has also directed that other housing units be constructed in phases across all the federal constituencies and thereafter, local government by local government, all in a bid to address accommodation shortage across the state.
According to the commissioner, over 400 housing units are being targeted by the incumbent administration, spread across the state.
He said the state government is partnering with the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) to develop affordable housing for civil servants and residents of the state.
The partnership, he explained, was a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement designed to address the accommodation challenges and the soaring rentage in the state, particularly in the urban centres and the state capital and its environs.
He said the governor has zero tolerance for shoddy jobs, hence the ministry ensures strict monitoring of projects being executed to ensure they meet the standard as contained in the Bills of Quantities (BOQs).
He lauded Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori for prompt payment of certificates and for providing good mobilisation to enable contractors deliver their projects without hitches.
He noted that the ministry has intervened in partnership with a federal government parastatal, adding that the ministry would soon inaugurate 30 one-bedroom apartments at the 181 Amphibian Battalion in Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of the state.
“We have also renovated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Asaba in the last two months. Also, the ministry is intervening on a two-storey building with 40 self-contained apartments at the Admiralty University, Ibusa, a project that transcended from the immediate past administration of Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa to the present government.
He noted that the recently commissioned housing units at the commissioners’ quarters were meant to complement the accommodation needs of the 30 state commissioners in the state.
According to Angele, Gov. Oborevwori has approved the construction of 12 four-bedroom duplexes for the state’s permanent secretaries.
Earlier, the Chapel Chairman, Comrade Ifeanyi Olannye, said the visit was to felicitate with the commissioner on his outstanding achievements in the housing sector and to urge him to proffer ways to check the soaring accommodation rents, particularly in the capital territory, Asaba, and its environs.
According to Olannye, the state has been ranked top in rentage cost among other states in the country.
He urged the commissioner to replicate the prototype of Jakande, Alaba and Amuwo-Odofin estates in Lagos State to crash the rents and effectively utilise land spaces at more affordable costs.
“If the state government can partner with developers and build highrising accommodations, it will be cheaper, effective to manage and affordable given the current costs of acquiring land and the rising accommodation rents in the state, particularly Asaba and environs.
“Your ministry is critical to the development of the state and in line with the Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori’s M.O.R.E. Agenda, you have played key role in the visible achievements of the governor since assumption of office.
“We felicitate with you on your achievements that have attracted the attention of the governor and Deltans.
“Your 150-units housing estates spread across three strategic areas of the state plus the recently inaugurated duplexes to complement the housing need of the commissioners, among others, are testaments of your achievements which are in line with the M.O.R.E. Agenda of the Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori-led administration.”
