The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eximia Realty Company Limited, Mr Hakeem Ogunniran has tasked both government and private sector stakeholders in the housing sector to make and implement policies, laws and regulations that will simultaneously stimulate both demand and supply for meaningful progress to be achieved in the sector.
Mr Ogunniran said this while he was speaking as a contributor during a Zoom webinar organized by the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) to commemorate the World Habitat Day and the nation’s independence at 62 yesterday, Monday 3rd October 3, 2022.
Analysing the performance of the Nigeria sector as the country marks its 62nd Independence, Mr Ogunniran who is also the Vice-chairman of the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS) said although it is easy to look at the hard core measurement parameters of housing success such as home ownership penetration, housing deficit, the general environment and say Nigeria has not done well, the country has made significant progress in many areas.
He said that continuous advocacy of groups such as HDAN has push housing to the centre of discuss at both the Federal and State levels and a good number of candidates in the forthcoming elections are making housing a focal point of their campaigns.
While heightening housing delivery as another area where the industry has done well, the Exima Realty CEO said “I think we have made significant progress in terms of housing delivery itself, what we must understand is that quite a number of the players in this industry have recognized that in spite of regulatory challenges, they still have to create a framework for themselves to deliver.
“If you look at the trajectory of development over the last five, ten years, you will see that developers have done well despite the challenges faced in that industry.”
Mr Ogunniran also said that the Nigeria housing sector has done exceptionally well in the area of technology adoption and housing finance.
His words, “There is a general realization now that technology is going to be a key driver of housing development and so if you look at the whole housing ecosystem, if you look at what the young men have done in trying to transmute the sector as a service you cannot but doff your hat for the kind of technology both at the development end and at the management end of real estate and housing in this country.
“I am not sure they are many countries that have made the kind of progress we have in this respect.”
On housing finance, he said, “Today we have sophisticated asset classes and as I speak to you, there are four major products coming into the market and two of them is based on tokenized and unitized asset.
“This was not the case five, ten years ago. We have created the framework, we have created the asset classes, we have seen that we need to take housing and real estate to the capital market where there is access to a wider poll of investors rather than what we have been doing and I think that is a significant progress that we have made.
“Overall, if you consider all the innovations surrounding housing finance such as joint ventures, all form of alliances that we see in the market today, I think it’s because people have sat down and seen that we have to be able to drive this industry forward.”
He however called on stakeholders to streamline policies, laws and regulations because the industry is currently loaded with many disparate initiatives.
Citing the new National Pension Commission policy of using Retirement Savings Account (RSA) for mortgage as an example, Mr Ogunniran noted that while it is a commendable policy, its timing may affect the level of success it can achieve.
“Unfortunately I am not as optimistic as a lot of people who have commented this, (PenCom new policy) because I think this policy has come at a very wrong time. If you want to stimulate the housing ecosystem, you also have look at policies that will drive demand and supply at the same time.
“We have done this at a time where aggregate cost of construction has gone up by almost 60-70% in the last three years, so we are stimulating demand, but where is the supply going to come?
“We have to be deliberate and intentional in aligning our policies, rules and regulations and not just work at cross purposes which have been the bane of this industry.”
The webinar anchored by the HDAN Executive Director, Barrister Festus Adebayo with the theme “Housing Sector Watch: How has Housing Industry Fared @62” had other leading experts in the built environment from within and outside the country such as Mustapha Njie, the GMD TAF Global, General Tunde Reis, Executive Chairman of First World Communication, Femi Adewole, MD/CEO Family Homes Fund Ltd, Prof. Timothy Nubi, Director, Research and Innovation Office, University of Lagos and Esv Olufemi Oyedele, MD/CEO of Fame Oyster and Co as contributors.
