Stakeholders harp on agreeable definition for affordable housing

Participants that attended the 2016 affordable housing summit held recently in Abuja have called for an agreeable and acceptable definition of affordable housing by all stakeholders in the country.
This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the 2-day event  organised by the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (FMPW&H), in collaboration with German Development Corporation (GIZ) and some indigenous corporate bodies (especially real estate developers) in the housing sector with the theme  “Developing a Blueprint for Affordable Housing Delivery in Nigeria”.
They participants noted that the indices that should be used for defining  affordable housing should include segregation, stratification, classes of people and their income brackets, “not more than one-third net household income of the target group, not individual income alone and equity contribution of end-users.”
The communiqué also urged both federal and state governments to reduce the cumbersome process of land acquisition and titling to ease housing construction.
Also, the participants recommended that there should be development of sectoral policies on affordable housing in consonance with the provisions of the various Acts and Bills on land utilization for housing.
Towards this end, the summit directed that the various bills on land for the construction of houses in the National Assembly (NASS) should be reviewed and finalized as soon as possible.
It also stressed the need to proffer local solutions to mortgage financing by considering generational mortgage financing where tenor could be extended beyond the original mortgagee for continuity; and  maintaining  the single digit interest rate in mortgage loan even if it required subsidizing for the low income earners.
The communiqué also read: “Recapitalize the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and enforce the National Housing Fund (NHF) contribution as enshrined in the enabling Act. The need for PENCOM to invest a sizeable part of the pension funds, dormant assets of banks and unclaimed dividends in Primary Mortgage Products; the need to put in place the appropriate construction financing schemes including funding sources for multilateral schemes.’’
The affordable housing summit participants also  urged stakeholders to join the ministry in liaising with the National Assembly to fast-track the amendment of the relevant laws already submitted such as foreclosure, mortgage and insurance laws among others.