Experts in the housing sector have called for a virile mortgage system to meet the housing needs in the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of a housing summit in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of Lifepage Group, Clement Oladipupo, said for the mortgage system to properly address the home ownership challenges, government has a role to play because developers do not have much power as they ought to because of the high cost of funding in the country.
He said long term solution like data intelligence is required in the system such that before an individual can access mortgage, such a person should be able to tracked through his international passports, phones and bank accounts.
“Tracking people is not easy and it has put financial institutions in a difficult corner. If I cannot track you it makes mortgage very difficult”, he added.
At the event, organised by Life page Group, the Chief Executive Officer, the Common Sense Estate Development Project, Dr. Olumide Emmanuel, explained that a holistic approach was needed to solve the housing challenge. This approach, he further explained, must involve the private sector collaborating with government to proffer solution. He listed such partnership to be in the provision of infrastructure, data documentation to ease mortgage as well as financing.
“In the United Kingdom it is possible to have a house between Lagos and Akure but you can get there in less than 30 minutes because there are fast trains. In the United States, if you are buying plots of land, there are already infrastructures where you can connect your light, sewage and everything but that is not the case because you have to provide your infrastructure which is expensive and nobody will not want to do that even with cheap land.
“In other climes, people don’t pay rents pay annum, they pay per month, one of the reasons we have corruption is that we earn income monthly but we spend yearly, so how do you expect someone to pay two year’s rents. This is the area government and private sectors can collaboration and find solution”, he added.The Nation
