By Ola Kay
The Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Housing, Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, has disclosed that the state’s monthly rental scheme will be enforced before the end of 2024 or early next year.
.
She made the revelation at a recent press briefing of the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority held in Ikeja, the state capital.
She noted that, it is the practice in other climes that rents are collected monthly on monthly basis.
The Special Adviser on Housing expressed the hope that before the end of the year 2024 or by early next year, government would implement the policy of monthly rental in Lagos State, adding that the rental would be charged according to tenants’ earnings.
She explained that, “The good part about it is that we would be test-running it first within the public sector since we can ascertain how much everybody is earning, and once we see that it works in the public sector, we can now push it out to the private sector.”
Barakat Odunuga-Bakare informed that the N5bn earmarked for the monthly rental scheme by the state had remained untouched.
She said that the fact that the scheme was slow to take off showed that the Lagos State Government was still trying to perfect one thing or the other.
According to the SA on Housing, “The last administration that initiated the monthly rental scheme was coming to an end when the scheme was to be introduced.
,” Now, we have a new administration and the governor wants the scheme to come into effect by the end of this year or early next year.”
In 2021, the Lagos State governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had pointed out that the present norm of rental mode whereby tenants pay yearly rent in advance to property owners has become inadequate to address contemporary realities in the housing sector, especially in cities where demand for property remains high and expensive.
Based on the current realities, the governor advocated a monthly rental system, expected to be affordable to both the low- and middle-income earners usually under the weight of yearly rent obligation.
Governor Sanwo-Olu made the recommendation at the 10th meeting of the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development held in Lagos recently.
He appealed to policymakers to consider the suggestion and initiate a regulatory framework that would help the transition to a new rental regime.
Sanwo-Olu said Lagos was already working out monthly rent modalities to accommodate residents not keen on the state’s home ownership scheme.
The governor stated that, “In Lagos, we operate a very robust rent-to-own programme of five per cent down payment and six per cent simple interest rate payable over 10 years. We are working on another product, which is a purely rental system, where residents will pay monthly.”
Sanwo-Olu’s position on the new model was corroborated by the former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who observed that the yearly rental system had created inequality in housing supply and widened affordability gap for low-income earners.
About The Author
