The immediate past President, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko, has blamed the lack of regulation in the real estate sector for the existence of unoccupied massive estates and buildings in major cities in the country by individuals whose sources of income are questionable.
Amid the huge housing deficit in the country, many estates in major cities are completed but lying unoccupied, he stated.
According to him, the issue of unoccupied estates is mind-boggling not only to Nigerians, but to the developers and also to the government as well.
He said: “Internationally, there is what we call the Financial Action Tax Force. This Financial Action Tax Force is gauging and supervising the money laundering issue of all the countries in the world.
“In addition, Section 11 of Money Laundering Act and Terrorism clearly states that anyone who acquires, uses, retains or takes possession or control of any fund or property, knowingly or reasonably, ought to have known that such fund or property is, or forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act; commits an offence of money laundering.
“Before my tenure ended last year, we crafted “Real Estate Regulatory Council of Nigeria, 2023” which is targeted at fully regulating the sector and also curtailing money laundering in the country. It had inputs from all the regulatory institutions; all the state commissioners, all the professionals in the built industry were part of the drafting and was eventually passed by the 9th National Assembly and later transmitted to President Tinubu on June 9th for assent but he declined assent.
“The truth must be told, some of the houses that we see are a product of money laundering from the people who stole money from the government and they don’t even want to put a signage to indicate any name of an estate developer, because they are proceeds of crime, they are just building as the money is there.
“There are so many of them in Abuja, in Port Harcourt in Lagos, Kano. If you go, you will see so many of them.
“We deliberately initiated the bill to protect the interests of the developers. If the government signs that bill, you will not be talking about unoccupied estates because there will be regulation and if you want to erect any estate, you must register, be licensed and be known, but unfortunately, we don’t have one and the issue may continue to linger.
“Sadly, the bill has been passed in the Senate, and also the House of Representatives but is yet to be assented to by the president.”
According to him, the idea were to protect and regulate the sector and also reinforce the National Building Code but unfortunately as it stands, “we can’t do much with regards to the rising cases of unoccupied estates even though it is also affecting us as developers because many of those erecting these estates are not known”.
On the high cost of building materials Wamakko said a lot of things have caused the skyrocketing prices of building materials.
According to him the major ones are inflation, high transportation costs and unstable exchange rates. “You know most of the building materials are imported and transporting them has also increased, so these are the issues that cumulatively increase the cost of building materials,” he added.
On the way out he said: “40 per cent of the African housing deficit is in Nigeria. Africa has about 55 million housing deficits, while Nigeria is having about 20 million or even more out of it because this data is from the Shelter Afrique Housing Development Bank. So, the most important thing I think that can be done is to provide some form of subsidy for the housing sector that will go a long way in reducing the cost on developers and the end user.”
On alternative funding for the real estate sector, the former REDAN boss said except under the Renewed Hope Housing Estates programme, government through this programme could channel the money meant for houses to developers who can now borrow at single interest rates at nine per cent at most, otherwise, nothing can be achieved.
Continuing in the old style of patronising government contractors to build these houses, the government will do well to channel these mortgage loans to registered developers who will develop the houses and also repay the loan at the appointed time, he added.
By Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie @TheNation
