A land developer and Chief Executive Officer of Perfect Estate Developers Limited, Arch. Dayo Babatunde, has urged governments to deepen the provision of infrastructure to enable estate developers to deliver more housing projects.
Speaking with pressmen in Abuja, the real estate developer said such infrastructures like road, drainage, electricity and water supply, open up sites where developers can leverage to make houses available and affordable for Nigerians.
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He also said it was important for the government to own such infrastructures as politicians often lay claim to them. Babatunde cited a case of an access road in Kuje town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which is being taunted as a political achievement.
He however said his firm built the road for N200 million to connect the 600 unit Perfect Estate in the area. And the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project was done after a futile effort to get the government to do it.
The housing developer lamented the high cost of providing infrastructure by the private sector to aid urban development.
“The financial aspect is a challenge. Out of what we are using to do the project, we are also taking a large chunk of funds for the road. Without a good access road, you discover that marketing an estate becomes a big challenge. So we are also under pressure to make the road a reality while also building the houses,” Babatunde said.
