…Promises to hand over keys in one year
By Emmanuel Elebeke
THE challenge of accommodation for Nigerians, especially civil servants in the FCT will soon become a thing of the past, as a real estate firm, Kanis Construction Limited, has flagged off the construction of a 333 unit housing estate known as Kanis Homes at Karsana district, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Managing Director of the company, Henry Udorah, while addressing subscribers to the residential estate at the ground breaking ceremony in Abuja last week, said the idea behind the estate was to be able to accommodate civil servants, who are salary earners to buy houses and to end the challenge of accommodation for FCT residents in general.
Udorah added that the company had come up with a scheme that will accommodate all cadres of civil servants no matter the housing types of their choices, explaining that arrangements were ongoing through their primary mortgage institution PMI, Federal Housing Mortgage Bank in conjunction with Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria FMBN, which is the custodian of the National Housing Fund NHF, to ensure quick delivery of the estate by April 2018.
He said,“We are all working together to see that we provide affordable houses to people. Instead of the normal outright purchase, we are structuring the payment for them on the house you are paying for, and no matter your level in service, we will accommodate them and their payment will be spread over a period of time. We are trying to accommodate everybody, the high and the low. So, we have two-bedroom flat, three-bedroom, three-bedroom duplexes with boys quarters, four-bedroom semi detached duplex and attached boys quarters and four bedroom fully detached duplex with two room boys quarters.
“Prices for the houses are based on salaries or incomes. In other words, your income or salary will determine the housing type that suits you, that you can afford and conveniently pay for. For instance, if you are going for a two-bedroom flat, the initial payment we are taking is 20 percent deposit, and the remaining payment will be spread over a period of time. For the NHF scheme, it is the number of years you have left in service before retirement that will determine the spread of the balance. This means that if you have 20 years left in service, it means your payment will be spread over twenty years.
“If you look at the work going on already, the roads are being done, the drainage system is being done, and there is already provision for electricity. So, eventually all the basic amenities that make life comfortable will be provided with maximum security and police post here to enhance security among other basic facilities.”
Interested subscribers
Also speaking at the ceremony, the CEO Kaniz Construction Ltd, Dare Osunkojo, said Kaniz emerged as the favourite bidder for the construction of the estate for the Federated United Nations’ Staff Association of Nigeria, FUNSA out of 27 other developers that were shortlisted. He noted that the 333 housing unit estate is not only for the UNDP staff but including other interested subscribers within and outside the FCT.
“In our estate, we accommodate outsiders who are not UN staff. Presently, we have completed the most difficult part of the job, road, which is a major problem in Abuja. We have been able to tackle the road network in the estate. I expect more subscribers, as we still have more space for subscribers in the estate. This is just the first phase of the project. Behind here is our second phase and the third phase is over there. We have space for everybody. At the end of the day, we have land in this facility that will take over 2,500 subscribers”, he added.
The challenge of the project according to him, is the provision of facilities, as Nigerian banks are not so good in granting loans to developers who actually need the loans. On his part, the chairman of FUSAN, Mr. Oladipo Osibo, described the ceremony as a good feeling. “We have gone round the site and we are quite happy about what we have seen. I will say kudos to Kaniz for keeping to their words and also being able to meet peoples’ dreams. What we did was to go through developers that are actually serious and able to provide us with what we truly want. We went through three to five different developers before we finally settled for Kaniz.”
One thing that was clear when we had meeting with them is that they were a bit flexible both in pricing and structure and they seem to be quite honest in their dealings”, Osibo pointed out.
