‘How to make more houses available’

Governments have been charged to expand access to housing through optimal regeneration of old houses into new ones.

An expert with Ramos Realty, Babakayode Lateef-Ibrahim said government should encourage the conversion of old districts into new modern facilities with more capacity as a deliberate move to bridge the housing deficit.

Lateef-Ibrahim who is the Senior Commercial Executive, Ramos Realty said when developments come to neighborhoods, the value and living conditions of those areas would improve.

He said, “We believe that this should be encouraged. Of course, this means that rent prices will typically go up because these house owners invested in the property and expect a return. To help with this rent cost though, the government must be strict with their zoning laws to ensure more apartments are built. When single living houses replace multi-story houses, it reduces the number of houses available for rent leading to higher rent but when the reverse is the case, more houses become available to be rented.”

Samson Asenguah, Commercial Executive, said, “Ramos Realty is very interested in expanding access to housing for Nigerians through several initiatives. First, we partner with mortgage brokers  and  facilitate access to good rates for our clients. One of those partnerships was signed late last year with “Bongalow Ltd’ and we are currently in talk with more brokers and Banks.

“Secondly, we give our clients early access to new developments to allow them to invest early in off-plan housing which is usually cheaper than finished ones. We also broker several payment plan arrangements depending on the clients financial situation.”