Contrary to popular opinion, houses in Lagos are not as expensive as it appears to be.
As a matter of fact, just like every other states in Nigeria, houses in Lagos are cheap and affordable.
One now begins to wonder why people complain about high spendings for houses in Lagos.
Well, this article seeks to expose the root problems and the major cause of this.
A critical look into the issue of housing in Lagos points all fingers towards the direction of the developers and house agents, these people are the major architects of this problem.
The Developers
You see, majority of the houses in Lagos are built by developers, who by all means seek to double their investment.
While one cannot deny the high price of building materials, the high cost of these houses when completed is one that should not be ignored, especially as it has become a huge burden to residents.
After building their houses, developers peg the building at high prices for investors buying units of the building to lease and in turn these investors/landlords peg the unit rents at high rates, this is because they want to recover their investment.
Now, tenants who want to rent this units are subjected to heavy payment and fees including, rent, agency, agreement and commission, caution fee and utilities. Many tenants, especially low income earners, pay in tears.
Lagos House Agents
House agents in Lagos are issues on their own, they are not the owners of the houses but they always explore every possible means to swallow money from them, in fact in most cases, agents make more money than landlords when tenants pay.
Aside the unnecessary agent and commission fees, the exploitation people face in the hands of this agent is very frustrating.
Before an agent takes a client to see a new home, a non refundable amount of money is demanded, this continues until the client finds an apartment of his choice which in some cases may be after months of numerous payments.
When a client finally picks a house, he/she is subjected to a 50% agent and 50% commission payment. The intending tenant will also have to pay a caution fee.
Government Intervention
The heavy influx of people into the metro city fuels the moral of these agents, “if you no like am, leave am, another person go collect am”, they will tell you with pride.
This has become a major issue that seeks the urgent intervention of the government.
Housing in Lagos has become a heavy burden on residents especially the low income earners.
People who have already rented a house are stuck there because moving to a new one now may bankrupt them, so if they struggle to even see the rent where they are, that is enough.
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Others who still insist on moving for one reason or the other find themselves at the mercy of the developers and house agent.
There are many affordable houses in Lagos owned by landlords who do not exploit their tenants especially in times like this.
