A Dubai-based property developer has commenced $18.5 billion sites and services project expected to provide over 140,000 housing units within Centenary City in Abuja.
Unveiling the initiative in Abuja, a co-investor/ developer, Alhassan Dantata, explained that government has leased the project, while funding is coming from foreign investors.He stressed that Centenary City was delayed because of controversies, adding that the housing programme was brought on stream with the present pact with the foreign investor.

According to him, immediate past president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan conceived the idea of Centenary City to commemorate Nigeria’s 100th years of existent as a nation, while Senator Anyim Pius Anyim anchored it.He said housing project was tagged ‘affordable luxury for the common man’, and every design must be approved from Dubai, adding that there was no development in any country, investors would not involved.

Dantata also explained that the programme would create 150, 000 direct jobs with additional 250,000 daily jobs for indigenes and will have positive impacts on the housing sector because of the foreign developers’ reputation.

“The two-bedroom unit would goes for between N15 and N30 million, and it could be accessed through mortgage facilities, which civil servants could key into.“ It would soon become a dream come true to meet housing needs of Abuja residents.

“It is going to be a Smart city, or mini –Abuja, with $50 million City Gate. The location is a ten minutes drive to the airport, and twenty minutes to city centre; made up of Amusement Park, Tourism site, and golf course.

“Beneficiaries cut across all strata. It means pay and enjoy your money. House loan scheme is N16 million for civil servants to be deducting from salary. This would enable them pay N30million with electricity, water supply, and security”, he added.On the issue of compensation, he hinted about N1.377 billion have been paid to the indigenes through the minister of FCT, while 475 houses have been built for the landowners in line with Abuja Master Plan.

To bridge the housing shortfalls, Messrs Merrybells group has introduced a new investment platform that harnesses opportunities in home ownership schemes and provides house types on convenient payment structure.

The scheme is designed to establish housing estates in consonance with Nigeria demography, disseminate public education on the ease of getting personal homes and offering buildable parcels of land at discounted rates to the public.

The initiative known as Petral Real Estate Investment Club (PETRIC) is structured into the members-partner, member-manager and member patrons in favour of the high, middle and low-income earners to demystify the persistent housing deficit in the country.

Speaking during the product launch in Lagos, the Group Managing Director of Merrybells group, Mr. Emmanuel Oyelowo explained that the idea is anchored on the philosophy of multilevel marketing system; however, the difference is that the ideology is built on tangible, real and concrete products like housing units and landed properties.

He posited that the platform harness people of like minds to collectively drive toward sustained prosperity in a secured system, enlist physically and online and provides free entry and exits by prospective individuals
Oyelowo, a member of Chartered Institute of Housing, United Kingdom said PETRIC offers the solution to worsening housing problem in cities where demographic distribution averages 15percent high-income earners, 25per cent middle income and 60 percent low-income earners.

He lamented that the provision of housing units by both public and private organisations are unfortunately 70 per cent, 20per cent and 10 per cent for the high, middle and low-income earners.According to him, the lopsided arrangement has contributed to unoccupied houses even in the face of acute deficit, especially in cities like Abuja. He added that the inherent social problems associated with housing deficits are fast turning the available houses to slums and incredulously slums into a dwelling.To solve the challenge of affordable housing in Nigeria, Oyelowo, who is a Real estate Development Association (REDAN) member, said government needs to review the processes of owning homes in the country especially as it relates to the issue of affordable mortgage.

Experts in real estate yesterday blamed policy inconsistencies, delay in legal process, poor state of infrastructure and inadequate access to finance for the slow progress recorded by the sector in the country.

According to the experts, who were drawn from the public and private sectors, only collaborative efforts by players in the industry can position it on the path of growth to contribute its quota to the nation’s economic development.

They spoke at the 7th edition of the yearly Real Estate Unite summit organized by 3Invest, a real estate company, in Lagos.

It was tagged “The Conversation Summit.”

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eximia Realty Limited, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran, who spoke on “Connecting the dots: Nexus between policy, legal and regulatory framework and real estate growth in Nigeria”, noted that government inconsistent policy, lack of infrastructure and high cost of construction had inhibited growth in the sector.

He said although some significant reforms had been made in the sector, leading to the nation’s improving record in the ease of doing business rating, it was still suffering severe challenges that required consistent and collaborative efforts to overcome.

The developer, who is a former managing director of UACN Property Development Company Plc, noted the important role of infrastructure in the growth of the sector, saying it constituted between 15 to 20 percent of the cost of development.

On the issue of funding, Ogunniran expressed regret that access to long-term funds is very limited, while the available offshore funding is bedeviled by the velocity of the foreign exchange market.

According to him, the nation can make progress when all stakeholders come together to ensure strict compliance with some positive government policies, such as the Nigeria Housing Finance programme.

The Chief Executive Officer, Nedcomaoks Limited, Mr. Kennedy Okonkwo, called for the protection of property rights by governments despite party affiliations.

He recalled the recent demolition of a television house in Ibadan, Oyo State, stressing that revocation of titles by successive government do not encourage investment in the real estate sector.

The Chief Executive Officer of Palton Moragn Holdings, Adesope Adeyinka, said it was ironical that government, which wants to solve housing problems, always come out with unfavourable policies.

He lamented that government is treating the issue of perfection of titles and land acquisition as business instead of service, thereby working against its intention to solve housing problems.

In her address, the organizer of the summit and Chief Executive,3Invest, Mrs. Ruth Obih-Obuah, noted the importance of the real estate as the most transformative sector of any economy and one of the most effective tools for poverty alleviation and job creation.

She said the sector was capable of contributing meaningfully towards the development of the economy, if adequately structured.

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