The Abuja Property Development Company (APDC) is set to provide affordable housing to low income earners through its various schemes aimed at bridging the housing gap in the capital city.
The Managing Director of APDC, Alhaji Lawal Aliyu Magaji, who revealed this during an interview with journalists in Abuja, said one of such schemes was rent-to-own.
Alhaji Lawal explained that, “We are trying to come up with a rent-to-own scheme. Instead of paying rent to a landlord, why not pay to own the house ultimately? It is going to be a tripartite thing between the off-taker, his organisation and APDC. We need to have that agreement so that when people are exiting service we will be notified that they are leaving and then the entitlements are kept until they are liquidated or we take out the cost of the building.”
He added that the social housing scheme, one and two-bedroom units, was targeting railway corridors in the city such that it would be easier for the working class people who live on the outskirts and contend with traffic congestion while coming to work and going back from work to have more functional lives.
He said, “If you are a big man and you live in Maitama or Asokoro and your driver or cook stays in Keffi or Suleja, of course you cannot function very well. So we are looking at the rail corridors. The light rail as you know has started test running and we intend to have affordable houses around the corridors and that would allow the people to hop into the train and go to work in any part of the city.”
He further said mortgage facilities were available for all the projects and that they could be accessed through selected primary mortgage banks which applied to the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).
He explained that, “The home seeker or subscriber would only need to contribute 10 to 30 per cent equity; depending on the price of their houses of choice, and FMBN will make available the balance for the house at six per cent interest, repayable over a number of years.”
The MD, however, decried the rising cost of building materials which he said had impacted negatively on the built environment.
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