By Echeburu Oby
Concerning bridging the housing deficit in the country, the Abuja Property Development Company APDC has said plans are going on in a bit to bridge the housing deficit in the federal capital territory of the country. By introducing a rent-to-own scheme that would allow low-income earners have access to affordable housing.
Lawal Aliyu Magaji, Managing Director of the APDC stated this yesterday being the 30th of November 2020 at a media interface held in Abuja. He stated, that the rising cost of houses in the territory is due to the cost of building materials.
Pointing out that APDC is looking at the railway corridors in the region with a view to building affordable houses in those areas to allow other kinds of low-income earners to live in a place from where they can access their work stations easily.
The scheme would be a tripartite thing between the off-taker, his organization, and then the APDC as the developer because an agreement is needed so in the long run, when people are leaving service, we would be notified that he/she is leaving and then their entitlement will have to be kept until they are liquidated or we have been able to recover the cost of the building.
we intend to build houses for low income earners and plan on going in to social housing that has to be done with the FCT Administration to make sure that the cost of those houses will be brought down.
We intend to have affordable houses around the railway corridors. That would allow the people to hop into the trains and go to work in any part of the city”. Magaji revealed that the agency is partnering with others associated with affordable housing.
“One of the challenges we are facing is the rising cost of building materials and the issue that comes with allocation of lands, However, we are working with bodies that are trying to offer some solutions. By providing locally made building materials that we can use or getting some of them to establish some branches here and produce these materials locally. The main focus of this scheme is centered on the provision of affordable housing for all.
