Housing sector is equally affected by Insecurity- Oke

 

By Ere-ebi Agedah 

 

The CEO Lifestyle Asset Hub Limited, Mr Abioye Oke has stated that the housing sector in Nigeria is also affected by the ongoing state of insecurity in the country noting that this has frightened companies in the western world from investing in Nigeria.

 

He insisted that that the current precarious security challenges in Nigeria has made companies unwilling to come to Nigeria to support the housing needs of Nigerians explaining that a forward thinking developer must be innovative, creative and should be open for collaboration.

 

Oke, who was recently decorated as the Africa CEO of the Year 2021 during Africa Lives Development Conference and Awards at the Rwanda Capital City of Kigali expressed dissatisfaction at the housing deficit in the country stating that a concerted effort from private individuals must be encouraged to support governments effort at ameliorating the menace of housing deficit ravaging the continent of Africa and Nigeria.

 

According to the Lifestyle Boss, lack of use of our sky space, the land use policy of government and inconsistency in policies has remained some of the challenges of the housing sector in the country, adding that every human being has the right to decent and affordable home.

 

‘‘In Nigeria housing sector there are lots of inconsistency in policies, the land use policy of government is also not supporting access to prime locations, also the kind of technology we still use to build today, they are very expensive, they are not very efficient and even the quality of design too makes up, because what makes an apartment affordable, it is not even the structure itself, it is the way it was designed by the architect from day one. 

 

‘‘Also, our lack of use of our sky space, we are not building vertically in this country enough. what I am trying to say is we need to start encouraging developers to start building more vertical structures, so long that the developer can prove that there’ll be enough parking spaces for all the occupants.  I believe that by the time we start building vertically, the cost of selling each unit will drop with the right technology’’ he stated.

 

While stressing that the housing needs of Nigerians must not be left to government alone, Oke noted that Lifestyle Hub through its structured Social Funding System has already settled the issues of affordable housing.