Lagos to introduce monthly payment of house rent

In a bid to cushion the effects of economic
recession in the country, the Lagos  State
Government has perfected plans to introduce
monthly payment plan on its Home Ownership
Mortgage Schemes popularly called Lagos HOMS
across the State.

The State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who
stated this after embarking on an extensive
inspection tour of projects across the State, said
his administration has decided to scale up the
rent-to-own policy by introducing monthly
payment plan whereby people can pay monthly
instead of being compelled to make a down
payment of 30 percent of the total cost or pay for
one year.

"We believe strongly that people should
be able to pay one month rent and live in
our housing schemes. We don't think in a
recession, we should be having a situation
where we allow people to come and buy
when they don't have money or to come
and pay one year rent. We think the way
to move forward is to allow these our
younger ones to just pay one month
deposit and pay one month rent and move
into the houses and then more or less
play up our rent-to-own scheme,”

Governor Ambode said.
While speaking on the pocket-friendly initiatives
of his administration on housing, Governor
Ambode said the State Government has taken
time to review its mortgage schemes vis-à-vis its
financial flow, adding that many ongoing housing
schemes have reached advanced stages of
completion, and that they would be rolled out in a
matter of months.

The Governor, who inspected
the Illubirin Housing Scheme in Lagos Island, said
government, in partnership with private sector, is
making arrangement to transform the scheme into
a live, work and play environment.

“In addition to that, the other housing
projects that we are doing are on course
and I want to assure Lagosians that in the
next few months, we will be seeing a
whole lot of housing units being rolled
out," the Governor said.

On his part, the State's Commissioner for
Housing, Mr. Gbolahan Lawal, debunked
insinuation that the Illubirin Housing Scheme had
been abandoned, saying that government was
rather working to improve on the project which is
sitting on 28 hectares. He recalled how the
project started under the administration of former
Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed
Tinubu with sand filling, while his predecessor,
Mr. Babatunde Fashola carried on with the
project.

He said:
"Now, under the administration of
Governor Ambode, we want to scale it up
and the idea is to make this place a live,
play and work environment and so we are
projecting 500 units instead of the 1,260
that the scheme was formerly designed
for. We believe government funds should
be deployed to some other sites that we
are working on and to also come up with
new designs and new buildings and so
instead of government to recapitalize this
project, we are working with the private
sector and the investor that has come up
is investing about $500 million."

According to Lawal, about five hectares of the
Illubirin scheme would be dedicated for leisure,
while there would also be commercial activities,
as well as flyover which would be constructed.

He said the State Government is already working
with the Federal Ministry of Works and the
Ministry of Waterfront in that regard, adding that
the flyover would be on another phase. He also
said that all the phases of the scheme are
expected to span between five to seven years, but
that there would be a lot of improvement on the
project before May 2019. Governor Ambode also
inspected the ongoing construction of a lay-by
and slip road into Isheri Olowora at Berger bus-
stop.
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