Kingsley U.N. Chikwendu and Aisha Rabo —
Before the Abuja International Housing Show ended, Viewpoint Housing Media went around the Exhibition Centre to get views and services offered by the different exhibitors that attended.
Excerpts: —
AFOLABI OLUFUNMILAYO, Head of Communications and Public Relations, Cooperative Mortgage Bank.
We are basically into mortgage, financing housing, estates for our cooperative societies nationwide. We have been in existence for over 27 years and we have been giving out mortgages to cooperative societies in different states in the country.
We have our finance estates in Ajeda, Ibadan (Pace Setters Estate), Kageni, Kabusa, currently sold out, Giri 1 and 2, all in Abuja. We have in Porthacourt (Harmony Estate), we also have in Bananna Island, Land, and we also have in Ogunbo which is also on the Island.
We deal with middle and high class income earners, and different stages of estates for any of the income earners. You can take our mortgages for 15-25 years at a single digit interest. You can get mortgages through a cooperative or as an individual.
As of the latter, you need to apply as the houses are already on ground that we have financed. You can either get the mortgage from the houses we have available or your building. However, we usually advise that you get houses that we have available because, they are really cheap.
Depending on the category one falls under (middle or high income earner), currently, we have 9, 10 and 15 million naira houses, even 200 million naira. We also have the social housing scheme that we run hand in hand with the government. Under that scheme, we have houses but, that’s for cooperative societies. We go through the Family Homes Funds because; they are the ones in charge of that facility. We have three bedrooms for 4 million, two bedrooms for 3 million and one bedroom for 2 million naira. These all apply to both those working with the government and non-government workers.
We have issues of housing deficit in the country, however, Cooperative Mortgage Bank is here to bridge that gap. It is really difficult to get a house in Nigeria because we have people who can defraud you of buying a land. So, we are trying to make it easier for you to get a house at your convenience because you are going to pay gradually for a very long time. So, it is quite easy for you to key into mortgage, it is one of the benefits you can get.
JOHN OLUGBEMI, Assistant Manager, Marketing and Communications, MFF Housing
MFF is Millard Fuller Foundation, we have been in existence for 15 years now. We began as an NGO and our aim is to provide low cost housing for low income earners, those that developers hardly look at, reasons being that they may not be able to afford their houses. That’s the reason we came into business. Overtime, we built a 100, 000 housing units and we decided to go into full business. Millard Fuller Foundation gave birth to MFF Housing which has over a thousand houses in Luvu, Masaka, Nasarawa State.
How Affordable are your houses there?
It is affordable in the sense that you can own one if you want to stay there. The challenge here is that, majority of people working in the FCT live on the outskirt of the city, as much as 90-92 per cent of them. Not everybody can afford to pay the rent in town, so you find people that are coming Masaka, Mararaba, Kubwa, Lugbe, Airport road, Suleja to come work in town. We now realise that first of all, if you want to build houses, you have to make them affordable, you have to first design a payment plan that affords the opportunity for people to buy and own some of these houses.
They are affordable in the sense that our lowest priced house which is a self-contain and can further be expanded to a one or two bedroom apartment goes for as low as 2.8 million naira. A one bedroom which can further be expanded to a two bedroom goes for 4.6 million, two bedroom goes for 6.4 million, two bedroom expandable for 3 bedroom goes for 7.6 million naira. Actually, they were much lower than this but, you know within the past one year, the inflation rate in the country has been crazy with building materials the worst hit.
Payment plan
Because of the fluidity of the Nigerian market, first of all, we get construction funding from outside which we have to repay over a period of five years. This means our payment plan must not exceed five years for us to be able to repay the loans that we have borrowed. You will have to make a 20 per cent down payment of the entire house and when that is done, you are given the keys to your home. A three month break will be given to you to breathe and at the end of the third month, you start paying.
AISHA MOHAMMED, Abuja Property Development Company (APDC)
I am Aisha Mohammed, the Head of Marketing and Sales Department, Abuja Property Development Company. It’s a construction and real estate development company, owned by the FCT through its own only subsidiary Abuja Investment Company Limited. We are essentially into construction and development of estates for residential and commercial sectors and we have been in operations for about 16 years now. We develop houses for different segments and classes of individuals within the FCT.
On if APDC’s development of houses are for the low or high income earners?
I will say we are in between because, for the low income earners, we have houses, but it all depends on those we categorize as low income earners. People can approach Federal Mortgage Bank and obtain mortgages to buy properties that we develop. So, if you are a low income earner, we may or may not have houses for you at this stage now. But, we can. We have done in the past houses for the FCT to develop houses that the low income earners can benefit from. Currently, our houses are for the medium and high income earners.
We can assist clients if they want to buy our properties by linking them with the Primary Mortgage Banks (PMB) because, if you want to subscribe to NHF (National Housing Fund), you have to go through a PMB. Over the years, we have liaise with PMBs and have assisted people in packaging their NHF submission through the PMBs. We work closely with them, we recommend, our doors are open a lot for mortgage financing.
Sonia Nwabueze, Senior Investment Adviser, SOW Real Estate
My name is Sonia Nwabueze, Senior Investment Adviser, SOW Real Estate. We are here for the exhibition show and actually, it is for people to know what we are into, added with the billboards we have virtually everywhere in Abuja. We are here to create publicity for people to see us and know the type of housing facilities we offer. The owner of SOW Real Estate is Mrs Uzor Onwubiri.
We have offices in Maitama and Wuse 2. We sell houses and lands which we have in many locations like Katampe extension, Life Camp and Kasana. The one we have in Katampe Extension is actually a building and land that we sell. We sell to clients and they develop by themselves. The one for Life Camp, we give the option for lands and buildings, we can build for them and we can also sell lands for them. The lands range from 450sq and 500 sq. The one for 750sq sells for 20 million naira, but if the client is paying outrightly, we can give a five per cent discount. Then, the one of 500sq is 15 million and if there is an outright payment, we can give a discount. The one we have in Kasana which is after Gwarimpa is just a building, we do not have a land there.
View on how the housing show will improve accommodation conditions in the country?
To start with Abuja, accommodation is very expensive. The best I can advise is if you have money up to 50 per cent, because, we can give up to 50-70 per cent payment plans. If you come to real estate, there are lots of opportunities, two bedroom blocks of flat for 15 million naira is yours for life, no one is taking it from you. I think that’s the best.
We do it in a way for people to be landlords in Abuja and that is the best that can happen to anybody in Abuja especially, when you know you have the money and a good job. What I mean by having a good job is that you can go to your Cooperative and get them lend you money for you to pay later. Also, when you become a landlord, you have high chances of getting a loan from banks. I will advise people to key into real estate
