Pulse Opinion: Majority of Nigerians can not afford 'affordable' houses

In Nigeria, prices of affordable housing units range from N2 million and N20 million. Can most Nigerians afford to pay this much?

Two years ago, the Federal Government launched the first 10,000 Affordable Housing Mortgage Scheme.

This scheme produced houses valued at N2 million to N20 million for low income earners.

 

READ: MFF CEO appeals to FG to provide affordable houses for Nigerians

Since then, a lot of these 'affordable housing schemes' have continued to pop up.

Now, the bone of contention is the affordability of these houses.

Why would developers continue to call these homes 'affordable', when they obviously are not?

How is the newcomer to the employment market, who earns N50,00 or 100, 000, expected to pay for these so called 'affordable' properties?

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Millard Fuller Foundation (MFF) raised the same question at a forum themed “Affordable housing: Bridging the 17 million housing deficit - building for low-income earners”.

“Affordable housing is not a duplex affordable to only a select and privileged few earning incomes of over N10 million per annum”, he said.

 

READ: 'Houses above N1 million are not affordable'- MFF CEO

The truth is that majority of Nigerians simply can not afford these 'affordable' houses.

Thus, I think the Federal Government has to adopt the American definition of affordable housing, which says housing are only affordable if 50% of the population can afford to buy.

Once this is done, Nigerians will begin to really enjoy these 'affordable' houses.