By Moses Patience Chat
Legrande Properties Development Company Limited, a Lagos-based real estate development firm, and the Lagos State Government have entered into a partnership to develop 5,000 units of state-of-the-art residential houses in the commercial capital of Nigeria.
The mixed development scheme, known as Alexandria Courts Coastal City, is intended to bridge the huge housing deficit in the city and is made up of two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments located in Ibeju Lekki, otherwise referred to as the New Lagos.
Babajide Durojaiye, who is the Managing Director of Legrande Properties, stated that the sprawling residential estate will feature tastefully designed flats to meet the comfort of the subscribers. He also pointed out that the estate boats of immense economic, residential and commercial value due to its closeness to the new Lekki Deep Seaport, the Dangote Refinery, Alaro Industrial City and other blue chip companies that are springing up in the New Lagos area.
“The housing project, which will help bridge the nation’s housing deficit of approximately 28 million units, is “equipped with over 5,000 quality housing units of two and three bedroom flats, including semi-detached and fully-detached duplexes together with requisite infrastructure. It’s a Public Private Partnership PPP, with the Lagos State Government and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria FMBN,” he said.
In order to ensure easy access to the houses for subscribers, Durojaiye explained that mortgage loans would be made available to offtakers who are contributors to the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme up to the tune of N15 million. He said the prices of housing units in the estate cost between N36 million and N46 million, while a plot of land costs N22 million.
He noted that his firm has put in place flexible payment plans to enhance homeownership in the estate, adding that apart from outright purchase, there is milestone payment without using NHF, which includes 30 percent of a unit price within seven days upon acceptance of the offer letter, 30 per cent upon completion of the first slab, 20 percent completion of the third slab, 10 per cent upon commencement of internal finishes, and another 10 per cent upon completion.
For the payment milestone of 12 months only, he said that the breakdown for NHF is 30 per cent; 20 per cent before FMBN would issue N15 million to the developer on behalf of subscribers of three bedroom flats; N4 million upon completion of third slab, and N4 million upon total completion.
“For two-bedroom flat, the NHF payment plan is 20 per cent 20, 3.8 and 3.8 per cent respectively. However, the title document would be issued to FMBN in trust for the repayment of the loan and upon completion of the payment of the loan sum which takes 30 years depending on the subscriber’s current age, the title document will be handed over to subscriber by FMBN,” Durojaiye stated.
He further noted that for people with low credit score to qualify for a mortgage, there is Rent-to-Own scheme put in place for them, pointing out that the scheme would allow them to make rent payments every month, while a portion of the payment will count towards their down payment to own their home.
According to him, “apart from stable power supply, strict security, internet connection, playground, swimming pool, recreational facilities, central sewage system, health centre and the rest, the estate comes with solar system.
“To address housing deficit, there is need for the intervention of government to lower the prices of building materials. There is proliferation of the property market with fake finishing materials. This would require the intervention of government to enforce standards and ensure that only quality products get to the market.
“There is also the need for the intervention of government in the cost of building.materials. Prices of building materials are getting out of hand of developers. We now have 200 to 300 percent increase.
“By 2027, it will hit 500 to 1000 percent increase. So, where are the masses going to stay? There is need to crash the prices of these materials.
“Besides, the developer pointed out that land was critical to affordable housing production alleging that many people have been duped as regards land transactions as they paid for land they never saw.
“To nib the activities of fraudulent individuals and land grabbers in the bud, he said government should look into the Land Use Act to ensure that people have easy access to land to be able to verify status of land before parting with money.
“There have been increased battles between developers and omooniles. This needs to be resolved as it contributes to housing shortage in the country.”
To achieve affordable housing finance, he said, this would require the intervention of the financial sector to come up with solutions to help developers and accommodation seekers or subscribers, arguing that short-term fund would not do it as it’s not sustainable, suggesting that availability of long-term fund with single digit interest rate would go a long way.
His words: “Currently, interest rate on loan is 27 percent. If something is not done to address this and make interest loan to be a single digit to developers of mass houses, the cost of N45 million housing unit now, may increase to N90 million next year.”