Houses for low-income earners coming as more developers align with FG’s new schemes

More than ever before, the Nigerian property market will, in the next 18-24 months, be receiving houses priced at purchasing capacity of low-income earners, especially families whose income is at that level.

This expectation is hinged on the new Federal Government’s strategic partnership with private estate developers on its new housing schemes, which include the Family Home Fund (FHF) and the

Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH), which have commenced in some states.

The FHF, which is under the purview of the Federal Ministry of Finance, is aimed at raising about N1 trillion. About N500 billion, representing 50 percent of the sum, will come from the Federal

Government while the remaining half will come from private sector partners.

The scheme, which has commenced in some states including Nasarawa and Kaduna as pilots, has already garnered interest from estate developers. One of such developers is Mixta Nigeria—a ‘new’ property investment and development firm based in Lagos with foreign affiliates.

The company, which is the new face and rebranded ARM Properties, is known for large-scale housing developments and has increased its capacity having acquired Mixta Africa, which has both capacity and competence for affordable housing delivery.

“With the integration of Mixta Nigeria into our operations, we have now capacity to deliver housing in large numbers, but the challenge we have in Nigeria is that you can’t sell 10,000 houses units. So, even if I can build 10,000 units, I can’t find 10,000 buyers,” said Kola Ashiru-Balogun, MD, Mixta Nigeria, in an interview.

“This is why we have been advising the federal government to come up with social housing scheme. You are aware of the Family Home Fund (FHF), which the government is working on. We are one of the developers on that scheme. We are actively working with the government to roll out housing for the people”, he disclosed.

Ashiru-Balogun hopes that through that scheme people will be able to get mortgages and credible developers who will deliver the houses, adding that with government’s support they will be able to get cheaper and subsidised mortgages.

Within Lagos, the company has rolled out three new projects, which include Fara Park 2, where it is doing about 186 housing units, which have just been launched. Another project is in Lakowe in Lekki area in which there are 96 units. The third project is the Lakowe Golf and Resort Estate from where about 200 housing units will be delivered this year alone.

“Our delivering and execution capacity is much better now through the integration of Mixta Africa. We used to make a joke in the past that we had more finance people than engineers within the group. Today, it is the other way round. We have got a good number of engineers both local and from other subsidiaries within Mixta Africa who are helping us to push the projects delivery”, he said.

The FISH programme is also gaining interest and one of the developers involved in the programme is Multi-infrastructure development company (MIDC), which will also be delivering about 6,000 housing units under the programme.
Emmanuel Obire, MIDC’s MD/CEO, explained that by “this initiative, homes will be built within affordable range of N0-5 million for which no equity contribution will be required from buyers; and then the N5-10 million range for which equity contribution of 10 percent is required and the balance paid from direct deduction from salaries. So, getting on the property ladder is now a lot easier.”

 

CHUKA UROKO