Housing Problem: There is great potential in the nation’s real estate sector.
Experts in the real estate have urged the Federal Government to ensure fiscal measures such as tax reliefs, subsidies, provision of social housing as well as various regulations, aimed at influencing the quality and pricing of housing in the country.
Noting that government’s interventions in the housing sector, should go beyond mere policy statement, they such policy must be backed up with liquidity and viable policies.
Giving the advice on the heels of some manufacturers threatening to shut down due to the growing economic challenges, an economic expert, Mr Jude Akanya, said government should through the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN, create liquidity for mortgages, based on the volume of businesses.
Though, he noted that the bank is largely inefficient and may not cope with the provision of the instruments to meet up the nation’s housing deficits due to paucity of funds, he said government should through such incentives assist investors in the sector.
According to him, government should re-gig the bank to be able to perform its duties, saying, ‘’there is great potential in the nation’s real estate sector, adding that there is money, which has not been tapped.
Government, according to experts must grow the housing sector by bridging the funding cost of residential mortgages, promote availability and affordability of housing through increased liquidity in the mortgage market.
Also, the Founding Partner of Huntingfield Capital Limited, Mr Onye Onwuka, urged government to strengthen housing institutions and make them more viable.
He said that this would be in addition to supports large enterprises for start-ups and expansion, including the financing needs of between N500 million and N10 billion.
Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has equally stressed the need for a functional mortgage system.
It however called for effective supervision of financial and mortgage market developments, combined with some policies to enhance housing supply flexibility, which it said, are key for macroeconomic stability.
According to the Chamber, in most developed countries, innovations in mortgage markets, coupled with appropriate regulatory oversight and prudent banking regulations, have led to a vibrant housing market.
It regretted that financial liberalisation and mortgage innovations have failed to increase access to credit and lower the cost of housing finance in the country.
Also, the African Development Bank, ADB, had earmarked another $400 million to support the NMRC, just as government is also trying to raise more funds on a long-term basis at reasonable interest rate, so that the cost of borrowing would go down.
Housing has the ability to be a leading sector for stimulating economic growth and development in a depressed or stagnant economy while raising the standard of living of the people.
