Tenants groan as Lagos rents for 2-bedroom flats exceed N1m

For most tenants in Lagos suburbs or hinterlands, these are trying times as landlords in these areas seem to have conspired to make the cost of living more unbearable with endless increases in house rents.

Many of the tenants had left the city centres for the suburbs due to the rising cost of rents, but they have now found that their annual rents are equivalent to what they paid in downtown Lagos.

Gideon Mbonu is a company worker living in Ketu-Ijanikin area of Lagos, from where he commutes to his office on Lagos Island. Mbonu shared his rent experience with BusinessDay at a wedding event of the daughter of a family friend last weekend.

“There’s no hiding place any more for low-income earners in this city,” Mbonu started out in a rather subdued tone. “My first place of dwelling in this city was Surulere, where I first lived in a two-bedroom apartment and later upgraded to a three-bedroom flat after I got married and subsequently had children. My rent at the time was N250,000 per year.

“From here, in a space of three years, the rent rose to N850,000. This was the reason we relocated from Surulere to Idimu where we paid, by our first year, N450,000 per annum for a three-bedroom apartment. But, with more influx of people from places like Surulere, Ilupeju, Gbagada and others, which are classified as middle-class locations, rent rose significantly to over a million,” he narrated.

He explained that by January 2023, a two-bedroom apartment in a nearby rural neighbourhood was renting for just N500, 000 per annum. But in the last six months, rent for the same size apartment has jumped to between N1million and N1.2 million.

Mbonu wondered where low-income earners should go to look for houses to rent if they cannot afford what is on offer in rural communities. “It is painful that costs and rents are rising almost on a daily basis when our incomes as workers remain static,” he lamented.

Fatoki Jaiyeola, another Lagos resident who lives in Ojo-Igbeda, a sleepy community that drives whatever vibrancy it enjoys from Alaba International Market, shared a similar experience, saying that the situation in the community has put tenants are on edge, unsure what to do next.

“Almost all the new houses here are constructed in two-bedroom forms because that apartment size is in high demand. Landlords are charging above N1 million for each apartment. Some who are still paying N1 million have been served notice of increase as from 2025,” Jaiyeola said.

He pointed out that about 300 metres from where he lives, a two-bedroom apartment goes for between N1.2 million and N1.5 million per annum. “They call that place Akai and most of the residents of that enclave are ‘big boys’ who are making efforts to ensure that the place is exclusive,” he added.