Here’s what estate surveyors told Lagos House Committee to do for housing

Estate surveyors and valuers were at the Lagos State House of Assembly recently where they met with the House Committee on Housing and made recommendations on how the housing deficit in the state could be tackled.

The estate surveyors, who visited the House under the aegis of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV),LAGOS Branch, told their host that setting up a land bank in partnership with the private sector, constitution of the Land Use and Allocation Committee and making adequate budgetary provision for housing are key ways to closing the housing demandsupply gap in the state.

The NIESV delegation, led by the branch chairman, Adedotun Bamigbola, was received by chairman of the committee, Bisi Yusuf, in company of a House lawyer, Tunwashe Kehinde and other secretariat staff.

Bamigbola explained that, as core housing services providers, the estate surveyors and valuers visited the lawmakers to see how the branch could partner with the state government, using the legislative channels, to proffer solution to the housing challenge of state.

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“One area we have identified through which we want to proffer solution is the establishment of a land bank in partnership with the private sector. This can be driven on Public Private Partnership to boost housing provision, based on cluster housing development, benefiting from community infrastructure provided by government.

“Lagos state has a land bank and we may not know it; but a lot of acquisitions based on the Land Use Act 1978 are all over Lagos which can form a land bank, that is, if government takes the decision to partner with the private sector. The private sector can develop housing with infrastructure provided by the government. You will be surprised that over a period of 5 years, the housing deficit we are talking about will become a thing of the past,” he assured.

According to him, the issues are technical and the government would need to draw a road map and put it into the state legislation to make it work.

“Adequate budgetary provision for this type of development in the next budget and over the next five budgetary cycles can achieve a reversal of the current three million housing deficit in the state,” Bamigbola noted.

He stressed that setting up of the Land Use and Allocations Committee as required under the Land Use Act would also promote the key issue of provision of land to address the challenges of housing in the state.