Stories by Yinka Kolawole

The federal government has been called upon to adopt the Mexican housing model, whereby government provides land along with basic social infrastructure while developers are left with the task of building houses and selling them at cost.

Chief Executive Officer, Century 21 Real Estate Group, Mr. Felix Modebe, noted in a statement that the Mexican concept will go a long way in meeting the housing needs of low-income earners in the country. “In Mexico and India, the concept is to provide for low income earners. Nigerians are good in policy making and not on implementation. The social housing system works in Mexico because the government will map out an area in plots; an area may be 500 hectares; put in road, water, electricity and drainages.

“Now the estate developer will come, take 100 hectares with the entire infrastructure. The road is free the electricity is free. The government will then challenge the developers to show evidence of building fund for 100 hectares and they will give the houses out at a stipulated cost and because they got the land and infrastructure free, they must sell it at that cost because it makes sense and that is the formula they are using in Mexico.

“In Nigeria, even the HSBC Bank is interested in the finance of social housing, but the condition they give the Federal Government is that they must provide them land and infrastructure. You, as a developer, cannot buy land and put in infrastructure and expect houses to be cheap.

“I will be happy for that environment to come when government will give land and infrastructure to developer for free and tell us to sell the house for N5 million per bungalow,” he stated.

Modebe asserted that the current system did not favour housing for the masses, noting that for government to achieve better housing, it should make land and infrastructure available as well as put in place the financial system to assist people with evidence of salary.

“My advice to government is that they should stop corruption. When the government says that they should give out land for mass housing, they should do that, not that in some newspapers you will see that land is for free and when you apply, it becomes N100 million. As a developer, you pass the cost to the buyer; real estate development is not a welfare service, it is a business enterprise and whatever money you spend you want to get back.

“So, with free land, the houses I sell for N25 million will go for N15 million. If a plot of land is sold for N10 million, it must definitely pass onto the house. The government owns the land and takes the land from the indigenes for free mass housing, the politicians say you must give N100 million before I give it to you so it is the problem of the society.