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<\/a>setting out to start a family, like the idea of monthly rents.<\/span><\/p>\nTunde Omotayo, who is getting married in April, is faced with raising 600,000 to 800,000 Naira ($1,500-$2,000; \u00a31,000-\u00a31,400) for a “decent apartment” in mainland Lagos as he plans to move out of his friend’s house after his wedding.<\/span><\/p>\nFor someone on a monthly salary of 300,000 Naira that is extremely difficult. <\/span>“I thought my salary could conveniently take care of my rent but I’m shocked. At this point, I won’t mind paying my rent monthly because as things stand I am distressed,” he told the BBC.<\/span><\/p>\nIf he is enrolled on the new system he would only have to pay about 50,000 Naira a month, which he reckons would make his life much easier with a wedding just around the corner. <\/span>Houses don’t come cheap in Lagos<\/span><\/p>\nAs one of the world’s fastest-growing cities, demand for housing in Lagos increases every day, and houses don’t come cheap.<\/span><\/p>\nTwo-bedroom apartments close to the city’s main business district, Victoria Island, go for between $11,000 and $22,000 a year while low-to-middle-income housing can cost anywhere between $500 and $5,000 on the city’s mainland.<\/span><\/p>\nIt is left up to the tenants to raise the funds, and the majority of working-class Nigerians have had to master the art of putting aside money every month to pay the annual rent.<\/span><\/p>\nSome of those that have difficulty saving borrow from loan sharks with interest charges as high as 28% per month, while a fraction receive no-interest loans from their employers to cover the rent.<\/span><\/p>\nFlat-sharing has also become popular for young middle-class people in Lagos so they can pool their resources to pay the huge annual rent.<\/span><\/p>\nMany others have moved into neighboring Ogun state where rent is more affordable, but they face a long daily commute to work in Lagos.<\/span><\/p>\nPam Christopher, who has just moved to Lagos from Jos, in central Nigeria where rents are far lower, could not believe the $2,400 rent demanded upfront for a two-bedroom apartment on mainland Lagos.<\/span><\/p>\n“(A) house is gold here,” he told the BBC.<\/span><\/p>\n“I needed the two-bed because I plan to move my family here and now it looks like I can’t afford it,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\nHe is currently living with a friend and is looking forward to the government’s intervention, which state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said was “designed to make people pay their rents according to their monthly earnings”.<\/span><\/p>\nBut as businessman Tosin Emmanuel found out when he broached the idea of paying rent monthly, it takes more than a speech by the governor to sway a Lagos landlord.<\/span><\/p>\n“The landlord asked if it was the government that bought the land and built the house for him. He said no government can determine how he collects his rent.<\/span><\/p>\nMany others have moved into neighboring Ogun state where rent is more affordable, but they face a long daily commute to work in Lagos.<\/span><\/p>\nPam Christopher, who has just moved to Lagos from Jos, in central Nigeria where rents are far lower, could not believe the $2,400 rent demanded upfront for a two-bedroom apartment on mainland Lagos.<\/span><\/p>\n” (A) house is gold here,” he told the BBC.<\/span><\/p>\n“I needed the two-bed because I plan to move my family here and now it looks like I can’t afford it,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\nHe is currently living with a friend and is looking forward to the government’s intervention, which state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said was “designed to make people pay their rents according to their monthly earnings”.<\/span><\/p>\nBut as businessman Tosin Emmanuel found out when he broached the idea of paying rent monthly, it takes more than a speech by the governor to sway a Lagos landlord.<\/span><\/p>\n“The landlord asked if it was the government that bought the land and built the house for him. He said no government can determine how he collects his rent.<\/span><\/p>\n“The man said I should go and meet [Governor] Sanwo-Olu to give me a house,” Mr Emmanuel told the BBC.<\/span><\/p>\nFor the scheme to be a success, the government is relying on the support of Lagos’ powerful landlords. But that may not be forthcoming.<\/span><\/p>\n“Yearly rents should not be debated because many house-owners depend on it for survival,” landlord Ayem Ojie told the BBC.<\/span><\/p>\nMr Ojie owns flats in Lagos’ Ikorodu suburb and said he and many other house-owners built their properties to fund their retirement. “Financial planning is easy when the funds are in bulk,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\nThe word “bulk” comes up a lot in discussions with landlords.<\/span><\/p>\n“Maintaining a building demands bulk capital, not piecemeal,” said Lekan Ade who owns a house in the middle-class Illupeju area on the mainland.<\/span><\/p>\nDemand for housing outstrips supply in Lagos, and the rental sector is seen as a sellers’ market, where those with the property can set the terms that tenants need to follow.<\/span><\/p>\nAlthough the government says it has built 14 public housing schemes since 2019, where civil servant occupants pay low rents, there is still a large housing deficit that has been left to private developers to fill.<\/span><\/p>\nThey build what they want and charge what they want in a sector that is barely regulated.<\/span><\/p>\nBut many tenants who have already got a home are not so keen to change the system.<\/span><\/p>\nNigerians are used to paying upfront for things; cars, phones, school fees, and there are few mortgage facilities available for those who want to buy their own homes.<\/span><\/p>\nAdaobi Asuoha, who lives in the middle-class Ajah district of Lagos Island, prefers to pay her rent annually as it allows her to be more financially flexible for the rest of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n“The monthly rental fees are good but yearly payment (takes) the pressure off you. There are some months when I would need my entire earnings for something else,” she told the BBC.<\/span><\/p>\nShe gathers her rent by saving a percentage of her salary each month, Ms Asuoha said.<\/span><\/p>\nThis mindset of saving large amounts is a reflection of a Nigerian culture of upfront payments, says banker Kayode Omosebi.<\/span><\/p>\nHe believes that Nigerians are not culturally wired for monthly bills or paying in installments, and that people see rents as an investment.<\/span><\/p>\n“In a place where job security and other bills are not guaranteed, people don’t want to joke with their shelter,” he said. If they have paid for a year in advance, that is something they don’t have to worry about for another 12 months.<\/span><\/p>\nBut he believes that if more Nigerians open their minds to monthly payments, “things are bound to get easier”.<\/span><\/p>\nEven the government realises that its ambitious monthly payments plan is at the mercy of the powerful landlords and might be dead on arrival.<\/span><\/p>\n“We know we cannot enforce monthly rent collection on landlords,” said Toke Benson-Awoyinka, special adviser to the Lagos governor on housing.<\/span><\/p>\nBut the government says its new scheme was designed after consultations with all stakeholders and sees no reason why it cannot work.<\/span><\/p>\nCERTAINLY, Good journalism costs a lot of money. Without doubt, only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government. We are ready to hold every corrupt government accountable to the citizens.<\/b> To continually enjoy free access to the best investigative journalism in Nigeria, we are requesting of you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavor.<\/b><\/p>\nBy contributing to NAIJA STANDARD NEWSPAPER, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all without fear or favor.<\/b><\/h1>\n
Your donation is voluntary \u2014 please decide how much and how often you want to give. For offline donation, email: letters@nigeriastandardnewspaper.com or call +2348037128048 (Nigeria) or +16825834890 (United States of America)<\/b><\/p>\n
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HOPE ALIVE FOR THE MASSES: Nigeria\u2019s House Tenants may no longer have to Pay a year in Advance for Rent…Parliamentarian debating a law to make yearly upfront rents illegal in the capital, Abuja *Lagos state government hoping to act as a guarantor in a new payment system, landlords will be encouraged to switch to accepting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a><\/p>\n