For over six decades, the nation’s housing deficit has been pegged at 17 million units. The figure has slightly changed to 20 million in the last five years.
Although no empirical proof has been given to back these figures, operators have since bandied these figures at public fora. Some operators or stakeholders are, however, rethinking the figure, questioning its source.
One of such stakeholder is the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who recently stirred the hornets’ nest with submissions that there is no housing deficit in the country.
The former Lagos State governor, who spoke at the inauguration of the Board of Directors of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), stunned his audience when he argued that the housing deficit claims had no scientific basis. This stand has created a divide among stakeholders in the built environment.
“There is something out there before we came in that Nigeria has housing deficit; it’s a lie. Unfortunately, it was a document that originated from this ministry in 2012. It has no scientific basis, nor logical basis; so ignore it. The housing problem was an urban problem, stressing that people who rented houses in the urban centres had empty buildings in their villages. Whether in Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja or Ibadan, we see empty and unoccupied houses and we need to begin to understand this problem. It is time to begin to think on how to unlock and bring the empty houses into the market,” Fashola said.
The Chairman, Nigeria Institute of Building (NIOB), Rivers State Chapter, Akinola Bammeke, agrees with the minister.
He said: “There was no housing/building census and till today I am not aware that there is one. I believe more needs to be done, especially with Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), we have a situation where Nigerians pay rent for over 20 years in a rented apartment. Same could have been used for a mortgage,” he added.
A civil engineer, Charles Oresanwo, also concurs with Fashola. According to him, housing could be more than the people but incidentally those houses aren’t affordable and that makes a serious deficit in accommodation.
But some operators are not agree with the Minister’s position. For instance, a builder, Lohvang Galle Nimmyel, said Fashola could also be assuming that a deficit does not exist except they are able to provide verifiable data to support their claim.
“Those debunking the popular 17million housing deficit figure – did they research and found out that the data does not exist? Did someone just begun playing pranks with a figure? I really think there is big housing/accommodation deficit. I just don’t have a figure for it – but I know it is huge. I think the sense in the “deficit” question, is that vacant or unaffordable stocks are considered “not available”, plus, our more popular and available slums are not (and should not be) considered as available housing too,” Nimmyel contended.
Gimmyel’s position was supported by a structural engineer, Sola George. According to George, if the 17 million deficit is not backed by data, ‘’are we sure the “no housing deficit” statement is backed by data? What are the statistics used by the Minister? He further argued: “It appears quite misleading to say there is no housing deficit when there is huge social housing deficit.
To a quantity surveyor, Aderonke Oyelami, what the Minister meant was that what the country has is accommodation deficit rather than housing deficit.
According to her, there are unoccupied buildings, but not in the league of who require the houses. In essence, there is dearth in affordable housing, which is why many of the built environment professions are requesting the government to give more focus and priority to social housing.
She said: “There are houses both in Lagos and Abuja; but most of these houses are unoccupied and unaffordable for the middle and lower class families who really need them. That is why there is an accommodation deficit rather than a housing deficit. A drive through Ikoyi and some areas on the Peninsula will reveal this much.”
A town planner, Yacoob Abiodun, regrets that attempts by the defunct Housing Policy Council, where he claimed to have served as its pioneer secretary, to create a proven database for the sector met a brickwall.
He regretted that the Council received very poor responses from the states. He said: “Our survey questionnaires were ignored. It was very disappointing. Now that a new attempt is being made, it is a welcome development. Just hope that the relevant stakeholders are co-opted to be part of the project, most especially the National Census Bureau. The National Building Code must be opened with the housing data it already had in its custody ditto for the National Bureau of Statistics.”
However the President, Nigeria Institute of Building (NIOB), Kunle Awobodu, said Fashola’s position represents a mix up of housing types of list. Awobodu argued that in housing studies, unoccupied houses are houses that belong to “housing wants” list. “By definition, ‘wants’ type of housing is defined as the specifics that must be satisfied before you consider any home. They include amenities such as a specific finish-out quality, large closets, or a pool. Examples of housing ‘Wants’ include: Specific flooring, such as carpet or hardwood. He harped on the need to research further on housing needs and wants in Nigeria.
He said: “By simple expression and in summary, luxurious type of houses are in the list of housing wants” and these are the houses the Minister is referring to while basic housing that meet the minimum standard of living in terms of shelter is what housing experts extrapolated graphically above”, he added.
President Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors & Valuers (NIESV), Emma Okas Wike stated that what we need is a proper housing census and need assessment which would be championed by the professionals in the built environment with government support.
He said his worry was that the minister acknowledged that the figure of 17 million emanated from his ministry in 2012 but wondered that he was just realising that it is a fluke.
Source: Independent NG
