Tenants groan over high cost of rent in Jigawa

Dutse, the Jigawa state capital has a population of 153,000 people according to 2006 Census, but despite the population size, the state capital is one of the cities in the country where tenants pay rents through the nose.

Our reporter gathered that some of the factors contributing to the high rate of rent in Dutse include shortage of houses, financial status of most of the tenants, who are largely civil servants and members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), and high rate of building materials among others.

Findings revealed that  2-bed room flat at Danmasara housing unit cost as high as N350,000 and 1-bedroom is hired at N250,000 per annum; while in Takur housing estate the rate is between N250,000 and N300,000.

Although, a well fenced house with source of water supply as well as provision of drive-in add to the cost of rentage in these locations, a self-contain room in Takur Adua, Limawa and Zai quarters went as high as N100,000 depending on the size of the room and facilities such as tiles, toilet fittings and other modern equipment.

Malam Bello Hassan, a landlord in the state capital, said high rate of rents  was due to shortage of houses for rent in the city, adding that despite drop of rent fees across most cities in the country, it is relatively high in Dutse.

Hassan said the worrisome aspect of the rent was that the trouble would continue unabated, as according to him “as the economy continued to shrink, those that have the means to invest in the sector will be discouraged.

“Investors are no longer willing to put in their money in property development. The cost of building has sharply increased but ironically, the cost of rent is dropping. When you take the two indices into consideration, you will not be able to arrive at good investment project in property development.”

Mabel Vincent, a corps member told Chronicle that she rented a room without kitchen at the cost of N65,000 adding as a corps member should have rented an apartment for herself.

She lamented that her colleagues that were serving in other local government areas of the state pay less compared to those serving in Dutse.

Malam Muhammad Nura Aliyu popularly known as Nura agent, spent many years in rent business. He told our reporter that rent had significantly dropped in the state compared to previous years and this might not be unconnected to the economic situation in the country.