Stakeholders demand mortgage reform

<p>Stakeholders have called for an overhaul of the country’s mortgage system to bridge the housing affordability gap.</p>, <p>The call was made during a media interactive session organised by the Property and Environment Writers Association of Nigeria, in Lagos recently.</p>, <p>The Managing Director of Legrande Properties Development Company Ltd, Jide Durojaiye, asserted that the government should make provision for adequate financing plans for developers at an affordable rate to enable them to provide affordable housing.</p>, <p>He said, “The government should instruct banks to provide a mortgage system that would make way for an easy payment system.</p>, <p>“Also, once a developer wants to build and the bank can certify that the developer has a good document, the bank can then go ahead to finance the developer to produce houses at a very good rate. And once the developer is building, he or she would be introducing all the off-takers to the bank, and once the project is completed, the bank can then pay the developer off, it then becomes the property of the bank. Pursuant to this, the bank can then distribute the off-takers or subscribers who would then be making payments on a monthly basis in the capacity of their salary.”</p>, <p>Durojaiye further called on all tiers of government to collaborate with the private sector and increase housing investments.</p>, <p>According to him, Nigeria had an estimated housing deficit of 28 million, indicating the need for the same number of units to cater to the population.</p>, <p>Durojaiye raised alarm on a rising trend in Lagos State where low and middle-income earners were relocating to boundary states because of the high cost of rent, land, and construction.</p>, <p>The realtor said if the trend was left unchecked, only the rich would be able to build and rent houses in Lagos by 2030, excluding both the poor and middle class.</p>, <p>He said,” If this collaboration is not made now, you will find out that by 2027, rent may skyrocket to N7m. The low-income group should not