From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Managing Director, Leisure Court Estate Limited, Mr Segun Abolaji, has said that affordable housing may not be possible in the near future if cement price and land allocation remain unrealistic.
Speaking at a workshop on Promoting Real Estate Investment organised by Leisure Court in Abuja, the managing director pleaded on the Federal Government to subsidise the housing sector and building materials.
According to him, senators and House of Representatives members are considered first in terms of land allocation and the real estate managers have no choice than to buy from them at exorbitant price.
Besides, the cost of building materials have hit the roof. These, he said, have made it difficult to have affordable housing in Nigeria.
According to Abolaji, if Nigeria must have affordable housing, the first thing that government should do is to make land affordable by regulating the ownership of lands.
“There is no regulation for the real estate in Nigeria unlike in America, where possession of land is regulated.
“It is even difficult for real estate people to apply for land and get direct allocations than the politicians who resell at exorbitant prices to real estate practitioners.
“Another factor why affordable houses cannot be realistic is because of the cost of cement and building materials. Only gypsum is sourced outside the country. Yet the cost of building materials are skyrocketing” he wondered.
He added that the attitude of Nigerians is also part of the problem. People take undue advantage of every situation. They make the business challenging for the practitioners.
ENDS
Speaking on Journalism Ethics, Rules and Conventions, Dr Maho Austin said journalism has the key function of informing the public.
He, however, said in doing it is the ability to to adhere to the ethics of journalism that makes a true journalist.
Austin said journalists must observe the ABC of journalism which are Accuracy, Balance and Clarity.
He called on journalists to carry out their reportage with fairness and balance.
On his part, Dr Law Mefor, a Media Communication Consultant, speaking on Journalism and the Business Environment government should make policies that will discourage money laundering using empty houses inorder to reduce housing deficit.
He said business journalism is to make correct financial analysis and make it available to the public.
Adding that external factors and internal factors such as economic political, social ,technological and legal environment.
Speaking on housing deficit he said
government could strategically intervene to force down rates of building materials by providing infrastructure.”
Also he said that access to land should be made easy and government should construct mass houses and give them out on mortgage so that people who have regular income can take.
He called on reporters interrogate the government policies, hold government accountable and to engage the government on the issue of mass housing by reporting responsibly.
Earlier, Mr Tope Sunday called on government should subsidise building materials.
He said if government could subsidise electricity and petrol then government should subsidise cement and other building materials to make housing affordable.