The Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), South West Zone, says it is on a mission to change the narrative on housing development and delivery in Nigeria which is characterized by constraints and costs that make access to finance and land titles difficult.
Besides the quest to be visible and more involved in all that have to do with housing delivery, the association which has just elected its new exco members with Debo Adejana of Realty Point as chairman, also wants to deliver value to its members and teeming clients.
“At the zonal level, we have two major areas we have set out to pursue in the remaining 18 months of our tenure,” Adejana said at a press briefing in Lagos which had in attendance Kunle Adeyemi, Secretary and CEO, Sterling Homes; Bamidele Onalaja, Lagos State REDAN chairman and CEO, Revolutionplus Properties, and Okusanya Oyebola, chairman, Ogun REDAN and CEO, Golden Bricks Realty.
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According to Adejana, access to finance and titling are their main focus, explaining that funding and title documentation are serious constraints in housing delivery. “We want to ensure that our members have access to funding. You know that there is a mismatch in the kind of funding available to developers. Whereas the funds available are short term, our projects are long term,” he explained.
Continuing, he said, the major cause of the shortfall we have in housing supply is funding. On the demand side, people can’t afford housing because of high interest rate on mortgage. So, we want to find a way to aid both the demand and supply side of housing and to achieve that, we are already discussing with private sector operators for partnership.”
Also as part of their focus in South West Zone, Adeyemi said they would be doing their best to make the association more visible by aggressively embarking on membership drive in order to project the association within the zone, assuring that they were already putting structures in place to make that happen.
“There will be membership drive by looking out for all the players to get them involved. We will also be engaging the governments of the six states in the zone on policies that affect operations of the association,” he assured further.
Onalaja added that the association would be collaborating with the governments on land titling which, according to him, is a major constraint to housing development. “We want them to shorten the time and reduce the cost of getting titles for our development,” he said, explaining that these two factors affect significantly the value of projects.
Oyebola harped on the need for public private partnership (PPP) so that there should be good programme for the people. He noted that governments all over the world are revatilising their economies through real estate development.
“To deliver quality products to the people, and to meet the housing deficit in the country estimated at 20 million units, the government needs the organized private sector to drive it. We are out to partner with the government in order to get title for effective development,” he said.
The association plans to have offices in all the states of the federation with a functional website. They also called on older colleagues in the profession to join hands with them in order to make the lot of the members better.
Like any other professional body, REDAN is also contending with challenges that slow their operation. According to them, competence and character of labour is a major issue, such that they have to source labour, including artisans, from neighbouring West African countries.
“The problem is a society thing and it reflects the getrich-quick syndrome that is affecting the country as a whole. We really need to pay attention to vocational training in the country,” Oyebola advised.
