The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola says housing will be more affordable to Nigerians if rent is to be collected in 3 months, instead of 1 year as stipulated in the nation's housing Law.
The former Governor of Lagos State made this disclosure on Thursday at Abuja during the weekly State House briefing.
He said, affordable housing challenges in the country is not only a function of high cost of building materials but also, the modalities involved in paying rent.
Fashola said that Nigeria housing deficit is pegged at 17 million, and that this is not a scientific or logical issue. He said it mostly uncomfortable for Nigerians to pay a yearly rent from a salary they earn monthly.
The Minister urged state governments to intervane in the management of rent, stressing that it can be done through persuasion or through legistions to help reduce the statistics of housing deficit throughout the country.
In his remarks, he further said, "so, if we understand it like that, then let us look at the urban centres themselves. In the urban centres, you will see that there are still empty houses, and you will then understand that we have to discuss housing on two paradigms - ownership and rental - because no nation provides full ownership for all its citizens.
"Most of the properties affected by this lack of occupation belong to private people, so the government can't go and take their properties, but I think that by persuasion, by intervention through state legislation, we can bridge some of this."
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