The ironies in Abuja property market

Walking on the streets of Abuja, one sees notices like “House for Sale, House to Let” posted on walls of buildings. Fancifully built houses are put up for sale for long but no buyer comes by. Many now ask, if there is overabundance in the Abuja property m

Yes, there’re houses! Yes there’re estates! But can people afford?” a resident of Abuja asked rhetorically. According to him, the situation here is “not availability but affordability”.

There are many houses but people who need them cannot pay for them. A typical Abuja property is out of reach for many reasons. Chief among these are corruption and over centralization on the downtown. Developers in Abuja demand too much premium on their property. Some demand as high as 500 percent the actual value of the property.

What kind of market is this?

It is said that Nigeria suffers a housing deficit of 17 million units. There is no official statistics on what share Abuja has of this. But it is apparent that houses are in high demand in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Similarly, as evidenced by the deluge of housing advertisements in pamphlets, on television, on radio and other media, it is obvious that many houses are up for grabs.

Mr Udosen Imoette who is Managing Director of Abujabased Country Home Real Estate Company has done real estate business in Abuja for many decades. He is equally appalled by happenings here.

Imoette who is member of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers said, “There’s demand for housing. There’s supply. We can see all the houses but those two can’t determine the price! This is the only situation where demand is there, supply is there, yet supply can’t satisfy the demand. Because the developers don’t really need the money. When you talk of prices – demand and supply: you have demand and you have supply but they can’t determine price. Isn’t that a shock to us?