Everywhere you go in Nigeria, mostly the major cities, you are sure to see homeless people milling about, no thanks to the rising cost of renting in these booming Nigerian cities of Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja most especially. Most houses in these cities are practically unaffordable to low class and middle class citizens and these stretches the number of homeless people beyond borders.

At the very least, this development is worrisome in view of the housing deficit in Nigeria. Yet there is an increasing number of vacant homes, buildings that should have families, albeit unoccupied in major cities across the country. In totality, landlords cannot be totally blamed for this, the high cost of building materials, land, lack of infrastructural facilities, inability to access fund, among others contribute to the high cost of accommodation.

Using Lagos as a case study, annual house rent range from N500, 000 to N1million for 2/3 bedroom flats, in normal middle income areas of Lagos. If a worker ought not to spend more than 30 percent of his/her income on rent according to UN standards, then a situation where a Nigerian civil servant pays 60 percent of his income on housing is near-suicidal. It sure has a spiral effect. His general well being as well as his psyche will be on the line. By the time you spend more than 30 percent of your earnings on rents, it simply means the houses are not affordable. Little wonder we have lots of beautiful buildings that have been completed but with no occupants because of the exorbitant and hard-to-pay prices they are tagged, either for rent or sale.

So what can be used to bridge this gap and make accommodation more available to people especially in these cities? Analysts believe that lack of property tax regime is partly responsible for the increasing cases of unoccupied buildings littering the cities. They posited that property tax will provide a check on greedy property owners and alleviate the sufferings of tenants who can’t afford the high cost of accommodation being demanded. A way out of this could be the imposition of special taxes on properties that are vacant for years. This could force owners of such properties to reduce the cost of rent to attract prospective tenants.

Also, if building materials are made affordable at a subsidized rate by the government, this will play a significant role in reducing the cost of erecting buildings which in turn affects the price of accommodation. This should be looked into if the ‘housing for all’ agenda is to be achieved in the coming years.