By Jude Njoku

The cost of housing provision is still very high because the cost of the components is very high. Land cost is high, land preparation cost is high, land regularisation cost is high. In the same vein, the cost of construction and labour cost are also very high”.

These views were expressed by a Lagos-based estatea surveyor and valuer, Mr Samuel Ukpong. Mr Ukpong who served as the General Secretary of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, NIESV, during the Gersh Henshaw-led interim NIESV government, told Vanguard Homes & Property that “these costs put together, still make housing provision very high and until something is done deliberately by the different stakeholders, it will not come down and if it doesn’t come down, the other factors too will not come down”.

Using highbrow Lekki and Ikoyi as a classic examples, Ukpong who is the General Manager of NIC Properties Limited, a subsidiary of Niger Insurance Plc, said: “If you buy a land in Lekki, you will have to prepare the land by sand-filling it. If you buy a land in Ikoyi or VI, the demand for it is highly competitive and who are the people who are looking for land in Ikoyi? They are those who belong to the high echelon of the society and the supply there is few, so you have people competing to have it. That is another issue in the land cost”.

On Mainland Lagos, the realtor explained that the larger population who want to buy land there are more than the land that is available. “So, the demand is high; the infrastructures are not there. There are no roads, so people cannot even go to the remotest area where land would be cheap because accessing the urban centres will also be a problem. So, when you put all these together, you will discover that the prices are still very high,” he said .

He noted that most Lagos residents are now moving towards Ogun State because that is where land is fairly affordable. “But where do they work?,” he asked. “ They still work in the urban centres. This constitutes pressure on their health and so many other things. So, you have the life expectancy of Nigerians that is being depleted by this movement towards the outskirts without infrastructure,” he lamented.

The former NIESV scribe also gave reasons for the huge investments Nigerians are making in the housing sector. “Whether the roads are there or not, people will still acquire property. The essence of property ownership apart from investment, there is prestige in owning a property. Location also determines where people are going to own these property.

So, at any given time, people will acquire property either to tie their capital down or to own it and also as an alternative source of investment. You know that with the crash in the stock market, the shift has now moved into real estate.

All the Toms, Dick and Harry are now moving into real estate but you see, the market is quite large that there might not be a glut in the real sense of it. There might be a glut in prices because the cost of production is high but there might not be a glut in the provisions because up till now, you see people squeeze themselves into small offices not because they would want those tiny offices, but because it is what they can afford. So, if you provide more offices and at affordable prices, people will pay. The same thing applies to housing”.

Ukpong disclosed that the redevelopment in Lagos Island Business District has positively impacted on property values in the area.