The Enugu State government has revealed plans to build 2, 500 houses for it’s residents. According to the Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, Solomon Onah, these houses will be for low and high income earners. Speaking during a ceremony to mark the commencement of the sale of forms for 500 plots of land, Onah revealed the cost of these houses to be N37. 5 billion. Concerning the plans for the 500 plots of land at the New Independence Layout, along the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway in Enugu, Onah revealed the type of houses to be built. He said twin duplexes /bungalows would be built. :: Inemesit Udodiong | Real Estate 2016 
Tag: Real Estate Nigeria
Why FCT is littered with abandoned houses — NIESV president
The new President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers NIESV, Bolarinwa Patunola-Ajayi has said that the Federal Capital Territory FCT, is littered with unoccupied buildings, because majority of them are proceeds of corruption, calling on the federal government to be serious in introducing property tax to address housing problem in the country. The NIESV boss has equally called on government at all levels to invest more in social housing with a view to reducing the country’s housing deficit while providing accommodation for low-income earners. Patunola-Ajayi, who stated this while addressing property correspondents during the maiden meeting of his council members in Abuja, said Abuja and its environs had enough buildings/houses that could accommodate its population without them running to nearby states to live. He maintained that those buildings were largely proceeds of corruption by powerful people in the society, which they used as a means to tie-down their ill-gotten wealth. According to him, they do not care what happens to those buildings because it is not their hard-earned money, urging the government to impose heavy tax on them to crash high cost of house rent in the FCT. He also disclosed that the current membership strength of about 5000 was far too low to meet the real estate and property needs of over 170 million Nigerians, promising to focus on increasing this figure significantly without compromising standard. “How effective can 5000 professional meet the services demand of 170million? It shows that the nation is critically in need of professional estate surveyors and valuers. How many government properties have estate managers? We have only a few. This shows why many of our private and government-owned properties are poorly managed. So to serve everyone better, including the government, we need to increase our membership strength,” he said. :- Vanguard News 
New MPR Hike May Set Negative effects On Mortgage Institutions – Experts
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in july hiked the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR). The MPR was increased from 12 percent to 14 percent, making a total of 200 bases points. Real estate experts have reacted to this, with a lot of negative predictions. Most say that this increase will have a negative impact on investments, developers and mortgage institutions. For Mr Chucks Omeife, the past President of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), this hike will be a problem for developers. He urged the government to come up with better policies. “But due to ineffectiveness of the mortgage system, developers are falling back on commercial banks to source fund for real estate developments. In my opinion, the hike is ill-timed because the economy is technically in recession. We expect the government to come up with policies that will control the inflationary trend and kick-start economic activities in rest of 2016,” he said. Omeife was supported by Mr Olayemi Shonubi, a former Chairman of the Lagos branch of theNigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS). Just like the NIOB past president, Shonubi says this increment poses a threat to developers. However, he also added mortgage institutions, and ultimately, investors, to the list of bodies, affected by this hike. “This is because developers and mortgage institutions source funds from the money market. For the mortgage institutions, which source their fund from the money market, it means that the institutions will invariably increase their interest rate on loans to the people. And this implies that the nation’s mortgage system, which has not been strong and effective will get weaker because investors will be completely discouraged from using the scheme,”he explained. New MPR hike is set to a have negative effect on investment. 
STILL ON ITOKU COLLAPSED BUILDING
I must have missed some development over the tragedy of the new market building that collapsed in Itoku, Abeokuta. The sad incident which was rare in Ogun State claimed 8 lives out of the 16 workers said to be on duty that day, although some people have insisted that the number of deaths was far greater. What I have missed however is the calling to question of the contractors and the supervising engineers. Is any enquiry in place over the incident? Or, have the perpetrators been exposed? Has anybody been charged to court over the matter? Somebody told me it had been swept under the carpet and I said that could not be possible. Which carpet will cover the ruins of such a big complex and the casualties. :: – Yemi Akintunde July 6, 2016 
FISH – Federal Integrated Staff Housing Programme To Handle Housing Needs Of Civil Servants
The Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme has been created by the Federal Government to solve the housing needs of civil servants. Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, Acting Head of the Civil Service of the Federal (HOS), said that the 11-Man Committee is in charge of fulfilling the housing needs of civil servants. “Civil servants deserve quality housing estates like their counterparts in the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Police. The fortune of civil servants in terms of decent accommodation is dwindling, following the abolition of such programme by government. Effort by previous administration to engage private developers to address the housing needs of civil servants did not yield positive result. This is especially so as civil servants could not afford modest accommodation at the market price charged by developers.” Although, she expressed confidence in the team’s ability to deliver, she urged them to fulfil their duties. “Mr. President is watching and I have great expectations as civil servants look up to you to deliver affordable houses for them with your track records” :: Culled – Pulse Real Estate 
Third Mainland Bridge Is Not Collapsing – FG
In a bid to reassure Nigerians on the safety of the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos, the Federal Government has again, declared that the bridge is not going to collapse.
The government made this known at the weekend, through the Federal Ministry of Works, in apparent reaction to the fears expressed by Senator Gbenga Ashafa (ACN), representing Lagos State.
The Federal Ministry of Works, in a report, entitled: “Federal Ministry of Works’ Report on the Third Mainland Bridge,” at the weekend, dismissed claims credited to Senator Ashafa that the Third Mainland Bridge might collapse any moment.
While speaking on the reports of the safety of the bridge, which is widely believed to be the busiest in West Africa, the Director of Highway Design (Bridges), Federal Ministry of Works, Aniete Effiong, said “the ministry has taken proactive steps, in line with its mandate to ensure that the Third Mainland Bridge, a very important infrastructure investment of government, is protected and kept in an acceptable service state.
FG to provide 180,000 housing units for civil servants
President Muhammadu Buhari says the Federal Government would provide 180,000 cost-effective and affordable housing for various categories of workers in the federal civil service by 2019. Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of State for Power, Works, and Housing, Mustapha Baba Shehuri, disclosed this at the ground breaking ceremony of the Federal Civil Servants Housing Estate in Abuja on monday 1st August, 2016. He said the Federal Integrated Staff Housing, FISH, programme initiated by office of the Head of Service of the federation, apart from addressing welfare concerns of civil servants, would contribute in no small measure to the development of national economies through the generation generation of employment in the building and allied industries and its attendant increase in financial intermediation and economiec activities. Buhari explained that despite the allocation of over N40 billion to housing in the 2016 budget, the Federal Housing Authority, FHA, taking cognisance of the resource constraints in the economy, would implement the housing project under the Public-Private-Partnership policy of his administration. Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifered Ekanem Oyo-Ita, in her remarks, lamented that a large proportion of civil servants lived in slums and unplanned settlements because of their inability to own a house or rent decent accomodation in a planned layout or in the city. She said it was, therefore, pertinent to implement the FISH programme to enable civil servants own homes as a means to uplift their morale, commitment, stewardship, and quality during and after service. 
Tackling Building Collapse In Nigeria
Human and Social Science researchers
note that shelter ranks second in the basic needs of man for survival.
Corroborating this view, experts in
building sector hold the belief that having habitable safe buildings will guarantee better life.
In the same vein, Mr Umeora Obiefuna,
an author, writes: “The place and priority of buildings to man’s existence and survival is important. Buildings, either temporary, permanent or monumental structures need to be
properly planned, designed, constructed and maintained to obtain the desired satisfaction, comfort and safety.’’
However, with these specifications that
are expected to be followed by engineers, concern citizens have insisted that cases of buildings collapse ought not to have been rampant in Nigeria.
They note that statistics shows that
collapse of buildings in Nigeria are
common recently involving loss of lives
and property. They cite the recent report on the collapse of a guest house in Lagos in which many people died. They also observe that the pains that the incident brought upon Nigerians is
enormous, suggesting that stakeholders should adopt inclusive approach to understanding the causes of building collapse and solution to it.
In a perceptible reaction to this, Mr
Danjuma Abalaka, the Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), observed that building collapse was due to lack of legislation to guide the activities of the operators in the housing sector.
“NIOB has a bill for the enforcement of
the Nigerian National Building Code which has been in the National Assembly for so long; if the bill is passed into law, it will regulate and monitor the activities of estate developers,’’ he said. According to him, another factor is high cost of building materials and the absence of affordable and alternative building materials. He also cited the activities of quacks in
housing sector, the absence of soil test
report and poor structural designs, among others, as causes of building collapse, insisting that many of the building details were handled by quacks.
Abalaka said further that the institute had received reports bordering on absence of co-ordination between the professional bodies and the local town planning authorities, the use of substandard building materials and lack of proper supervision by professionals. “Other observations on the causes of
building collapse include illegal conversion of buildings which often lead to structural deficiencies, flagrant
disobedience to town planning regulations by developers and landlords, among others,’’ he said.
He, therefore, called for stringent
penalties for those identified to be
responsible for collapse of buildings.
He suggested that the town planning
authorities should be adequately staffed and equipped with professionals to ensure thorough supervision of buildings at all stages.
“Effective monitoring of projects during
and after construction and training and
retraining of professionals supported by
all stakeholders will go a long way in
curbing building collapse in the country,’’ he said.
Abalaka also called on government at all levels to provide an enabling law for the training and effective control of artisans and craftsmen in the building industry.
“For any structure more than a bungalow, a structural engineer must be involved while construction work should only be carried out by registered contractors and supervised by registered architects, engineers and builders.
“Clients should obtain approvals before
they begin construction; they should work with the approved drawings and
specifications; and any alterations should be approved before their implementations.
“A regular audit of defective structures
must be carried out and such structures marked for demolition should be demolished before they cause havoc on lives and property,’’ he said.
For effective safe practice in building
sector, he called for the passage into law of the bill for the enforcement of the Nigerian National Building Code by the National Assembly to ensure effective regulation of the activities of operators.
Abalaka as well stressed the need for the government to develop a clear housing policy to regulate the activities of private estate developers in the country.
In his view, Mr Chimezie Uhiara, an
architect, stressed the need for the
people who were planning to build houses to carry out soil test of the site of their projects by certified soil experts. He said the result of such test would enable the architects and structural engineers to specify what type of foundation to set for such buildings.
“Government at all levels should intensify public enlightenment, placing emphasis on how building disasters could be prevented rather than managing situations which might be costlier,’’ he said.
Sharing similar sentiments with Abalaka, he insisted that: “Passing the bill for the enforcement of the Nigerian National Building Code into law has no substitute, with this, construction of buildings will be effectively regulated.’’
Apart from passing the bill into law, Mr
Mohammed Attah, the Project Coordinator for the National Director for
Standard Awareness Group, a non-governmental organisation, called for awareness on the dangers of collapse buildings.
He said the group had begun
arrangement to inaugurate sensitisation campaigns on what should be done to stop building collapse. “The organisation plans to raise five
million voices against sub-standard products in Nigeria among other methods,’’ he said.
All in all, concerned citizens opine that that if stakeholders adhere to the recommended preventive measures on building, it will address the issue of rampant building collapse in the country.
Culled from The Leadership News, Dec 29 2014, Credits:(NAN).
NTA PROPERTY CONNECT MAGAZINE 