Nigeria’s housing deficit came down a little recently in Mowe, Ogun State where a private developer, Pentagon Real Estate Investment Limited, handed over keys to new homes to members of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) staff cooperative.
The new homes are part of an expansive estate known as Mainland Park Regal Estate, sitting on 60 hectares of land covered by a global Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) given in favour of the company.
Mainland Park is a 1,500-unit estate developed in eight phases, with each phase ready for occupation upon completion with all attendant facilities and infrastructure. The first Phase has over 100 houses already built, fully occupied out of 200 houses projected.
Given the size of the housing deficit, which is put variously at 17, 20, 22, and 28 million units, the numbers delivered by Pentagon may seem too small, but they make significant impact on the families who have now been taken off the crowded housing market.
The developer delivered the houses to NAMA cooperative subscribers through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN)’s National Housing Fund (NHF) programme, while Omooluabi Mortgage Bank Limited, now Living Trust Mortgage Bank, facilitated the transactions.
The estate has different house types, comprising two, three and four-bedroom bungalows; four and five bedroom duplexes with boys quarters, while two and three bedroom maisonettes are planned in subsequent phases of the developments.
Among amenities provided for the estate residents are constant power supply from a dedicated industrial line from the national grid, portable water with water treatment and sewage treatment facilities.
Other facilities are 15,000 square metres of open spaces for green and play area, well-lit streets with well-interlocked estate roads, car lots for each house, covered drains and walkways and 24-hour security (mobile police and civil security).
“Mainland Park is a unique city that must be experienced,” Kennedy Okoruwa, MD/ CEO, Pentagon Real Estates, said at the handover of the houses to the cooperative.
“We are creating a distinct neighbourhood life that harbours superb residential, recreational, and commercial facilities; crowning these with amazing infrastructural facilities to welcome a teeming population of visionary people that place a high premium on excellence and quality,” he added.
Okoruwa said it had been a journey, which came to reality, recalling how they came there and assured the people that they would help to facilitate access to the NHF. “Today, it is a great joy that our dream led to the possibility of having sustainable home and the vision is being interpreted,” he noted.
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“God will always give us nature, but it is the responsibility of man to create an environment out of nature. It is whatever we build that becomes a reality. We are particular about the building, as it’s meant to last a lifetime,” he said
Ike Atuonwu, GM /COO, Pentagon Real Estate, pledged to assist other NHF contributors and cooperatives to own houses in the estate, revealing that Nestle staff cooperative and other multinational entities have indicated interest to domicile their staff home ownership scheme through the NHF window at Mainland Park Regal.
“The agreement is always in line with NHF requirements. They provided the equity while FMBN funded the balance, which will be repaid over certain number of years, not more than 30 years subject to their age of retirement.
“By subscribing to buy into our Mainland Park Estate, we will discuss their needs, profile and prequalify them to determine eligibility and our mortgage partner will do the processing, while we do the construction,” he said.
According to him, the company partners with sister real estate companies to develop bespoke houses for their valued clients all over the country where they were not fully on ground.
