By Kingsley Adegboye

Lagos State Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje has noted that effective mortgage system which allows for long term repayment for property acquisition is one of the most potent tools in the fight against corruption in the housing sub-sector. Jeje said the heavy burden of raising so much money by an individual for the purchase of land, construction and other inputs into housing provision has led people to source funds through whatever means available to meet their housing needs.

The Commissioner who disclosed this while receiving the executive members of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers NIESV in his office last week, noted that, apart from the fact that shelter is the second basic necessity of man, our culture makes all men inclined towards home ownership, stressing that there is the need to make acquisition of same less stressful in order to reduce temptation.

He NIESV exco members that it is in realisation of this fact and the pursuit of this laudable objective that the Lagos State Government is introducing the Home Ownership Mortgage System LAGOSHOMS that is predicated on mortgage system. He added that quite a lot of reforms have been introduced to the property sector of the system to make life easier for the people.

According to him, these include the Electronic Certificate of Occupancy to make land documentation easier, faster, eliminate fake ones and add more economic value to the land. The Commissioner emphasized that a parcel of land without proper title is a dead asset because it will not have economic value that will  be useful in business transaction such as using it for collateral to raise fund to grow one’s business. He said it was to underscore this importance that the State Government handed title documents to 1000 home owners in the State recently.

Jeje promised that members of NIESV will be engaged in the sale and the maintenance of  the various estates built by the government across the state. He therefore implored interested members of the institution to apply, assuring that they will be considered.