A group, the Cooperative Housing Summit Africa (CHOSA), has strongly advocated for the national deployment of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in the built environment to guarantee large-scale and effective delivery of affordable houses in Nigeria.
Strategic Planning for Affordable Housing
Speaking on the summit, the Convener, Mr. SK. Yemi Adelakun, stated that they are strategically planning to promote the delivery of affordable housing at scale to low- and medium-income earners through self-help and collaborative principles of cooperative housing in Abuja.
Adelakun hinted that their national survey revealed useful data for planning purposes, including the low level of effective demand for housing as against housing needs or deficit, and the difference between housing wants, needs, and affordability in the industry.
Key Findings from the Survey
“We discovered that low level of mortgage eligibility was due to income levels and high interest rates not conducive for long-term housing finance. There is need for self-help and collaboration among end-users. We have housing type, size, location, and price range in demand,” he said.
He noted that impediments to affordable housing are multidimensional, especially on the supply side, where costs of housing construction are ever increasing and access to titled land has been difficult. Private sector developers’ profit motives have limited their interests in the affordable housing space.
Recommendations for Government
According to him, “Government should continue to encourage and inventory private sector involvement through land equity partnerships and tax breaks. On the demand side, challenges to affordable housing include limited access to low bargaining power of unorganized buyers and renters.”
The convener further explained that affordable housing can only happen through deliberate national and sub-national policies, land and financial incentives, and public-private-people partnerships (4P). However, the sector is operating sub-optimally compared with its potentials.
Summit Objectives
Adelakun argued that the summit, billed for 19th May, is aimed at promoting the housing cooperative movement across the federation and digitalization of housing finance for capital aggregation, and for improved financial inclusion of those presently excluded from the mortgage system.
“Real estate sector generally is growing and impacting the economy especially in the commercial and upmarket segment. Technology adoption should be prioritized. That’s why they invest in duplexes and terraces with ready buyers who may not even need mortgages,” he noted.
He added that cooperative housing gives members access to affordable housing finance, increases buyers’ bargaining power with other stakeholders, encourages group savings, creates huge social capital, presents group discounts from developers and building materials manufacturers, and attracts equity and impact investors.
