Kingsley U.N Chikwendu
As the year roll by especially in our present time, housing affordability is becoming lesser than incomes of most households, putting more burdens on these families. More households are already spending almost half of their incomes on rent. While affordability has long been a problem for the low-income earners, the poor are also facing huge challenges, particularly as good and decent housing are exorbitantly built in urban cities.
This has lasting effects on families and the society at large, affordability of housing provisions has some important implications in the lives of the residents. Children who grew up in decent environments have better chances of living with a sound mind, contributing more to an environment and having better economic outcomes as adults.
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Houses that are close to or in city centers where there are good job opportunities, better transportation network, adequate infrastructures are expensive. And those, who are incapable of acquiring a decent affordable home in these areas are pushed to suburbs where decent homes are few and covered with unhealthy environments.
Houses in these areas are cheaper, making the residents to spend more time and money transporting to urban areas where most of their jobs are situated. These places are increasingly defined by informal housing typologies as the urban poor have to seek for ways to house themselves. This is one of the reasons that most slums in the country are not properly planned as residents seek to provide amenities for themselves in the absence of government intervention. In a way, this is a problem but, when we take a proper look at it, it could still be a solution to the housing needs in the country.
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Professor Abimbola Windapo of the Department of Construction Economics and Management, University of Cape Town, South Africa in a lecture she delivered earlier this year in Lagos confirmed that housing problems should be viewed from two perspectives – one, understanding that yes, housing problems exist and many average and low income earners are devising means of owning their homes. Two, the ruling authorities can in a way complement the efforts and drive of these low income earners to provide housing for themselves by creating a friendlier environment for housing development.
“Informal settlements are regarded variously as either a problem because of how they look maybe because, they are not properly planned or they don’t look good, Windapo said.
“People have put together these structures to be able to shelter themselves. So, informal settlements are these two things, they are a problem to the side and sanitization problems and so on. They are also a solution provided by people to house themselves.
“The more we look at the problem, the more we may be able to find solutions to the problems”, she added.
If the impact of the issues in affordability is examined in-depth, an economic way of providing affordable houses for all, for the masses and these solutions can be implemented in providing affordable housing.
In pursuit of solutions to the housing problems in the country, the Nigerian government need to build more less expensive housing or subsidize the cost of building materials for the many that are with the drive to build their houses. One of the essence of a good government is to ensure that resources that will lead to the growth of its citizens and the environment are provided.
In this case, building materials needed to develop housing are a necessity to be made available at subsidized costs for the masses. Bridging the gap between income of low earners and housing costs can be done through subsidies.
The government must reduce high regulatory barriers that limit households from building their homes and developer’s ability to build small, lower-cost homes in urban cities. Removing or curtailing these barriers to the development of less expensive housing would eventually lead to more affordable housing in urban cities over time. This will bring down housing costs.
Effective housing policies have the potential to improving the efficiency of the real estate sector in the country, create more homes both rural and urban areas and reduce the burden of owning a home for the low income families.
