Ms Leilana Fartha, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Adequate Housing, during her recent visit to Nigeria, urged the Federal Government to impose vacant home taxes with a view to curb the incessant cases of unoccupied houses scattered all over major cities in Nigeria in the midst of housing challenges in the country.
Fartha at a news conference in Abuja, said in the course of her 10 days fact findings visit to Nigeria, discovered that there is an extreme economic inequality in the country and is playing itself out clearly in the housing sector.
“There is an estimated housing shortage of 22 million units. At the same time, newly built luxury dwellings are springing up throughout cities and made possible often through the forced eviction of poor communities. These units do not fulfill any housing need, with many remaining vacant as vehicles for money laundering or investment,’’ she said.
Africahousingnews.com sees Fartha`s call as a wakeup call to the Nigeria government to look into the issue of unoccupied houses in Nigeria`s major cities.
Africahousingnews.com call on the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Lagos state government and the Rivers state government to intensify effort in doing massive auditing of housing stock in the major cities of Port Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja.
Africa housing news frowns at a situation where we are talking of 20 million housing deficit on a daily basis and many houses are unoccupied and many are still under construction, which from the level they currently are, it is crystal clear that they will join the same group of unoccupied houses, because they are big mansions which are not at the level of the homeless in Nigeria.
We urge the federal government to beam it searchlight on the housing sector through the EFCC and the ICPC to end the problem of unoccupied houses in the major cities.
Following the simple principle of demand and supply in economics which stipulates that when the supply is high, the price is likely to fall, therefore, If those houses that are unoccupied can be moved to the housing market, the possibilities that the prices of houses will crash or go down is very high.
Federal Government should urgently come up with a policy that will give direction to developers on the type of houses they should be building. In fact, government should introduce incentive for those who are building affordable houses. Once a developer goes into affordable housing, an incentive that will encourage such developers should be introduced by the government. If such policy can be on ground, building houses that are within the affordability of Nigerians will increase.
Beyond that, the property tax policy in Port Harcourt, Abuja and Lagos must go into full implementation. If that can be done, it will prevent people building houses and keeping them for years without anybody living in them. No reasonable business man will be paying tax on three to five houses at the same time and will not release it to the housing market.
The department of building control should be empowered to monitor and beam searchlight on houses that are unoccupied. The department of development control must come up with a policy that whoever comes for building approval must follow. Like stating in the approval notes that any building after completion must not spend more than six months without people living in them.
Africa housing news is calling on all state governments, federal government, CBN and other agencies that have to do with housing, to do more in providing houses for those that really need them.
We strongly enjoin the federal government to take over any house built and left unoccupied to enable them carryout an investigation on the source of wealth of those who built those houses. EFCC and ICPC must have the necessary legal backing to take over any property that has been left unoccupied in the last one year. The owners of such properties should be investigated to know the source of their wealth. Many unoccupied properties are owned by politicians, corrupt people and top level civil servants, using the real estate sector to launder money.
It is commendable that the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) just after Fatha`s statement, said that it will soon commence investigations into the ownership of unoccupied houses in the Federal Capital Territory.
The two anti graft agencies expressed worry over the increase in the number of unoccupied houses in the FCT while many residents of the city still find it difficult to secure a decent accommodation. Same situation applies to other major cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt.
The ICPC report says at least 600 abandoned buildings have been identified by the authorities in Abuja alone, with most of them located in Gwarimpa, Wuse, Garki, Maitama, Asokoro and Apo. The buildings are, however, above the means of most civil servants, resulting in them seeking more affordable accommodation in the outskirts of the city.
Africahousingnews.com welcomes the planned investigation into the owners of these unoccupied houses by the ICPC and EFCC.
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