Inadequate housing stock, among other factors, have been fingered as engendering occasion being exploited by Shylock landlords to perpetually raise house rents to ever ridiculous levels, writes STEPHEN UBIMAGO who in this piece, reports what stakeholders contend constitute the remedies for the gross situation.  
WHILE many Nigerians are grinding under the heavy burden of ever increasing rent imposed by Shylock landlords in different parts of the country, especially in places like Lagos, Abuja or even Port Harcourt, some state governments have tended to respond to the menace by way of legislation. This has largely consisted in the promulgation of sundry rent control laws.
Some stakeholders in the housing and property market have, however, contended that going the way of legislative promulgations is a strategic faux pas because rather than nip the problem in the bud, it indeed appears to be aggravating the already bad situation. This is considering that the government has yet to decisively deal with some pending fundamental issues such as being directly involved in upping the quantum of housing stock in parts of the country; or even making mortgage facilities readily available to citizens having intention of subscribing to property by way of purchase or lease, among others.
Mr Madukaku Chile, president of Property Agents of Nigeria (APAN) who gave this indication in a recent interview stated, “It may not be expedient for the federal government to fix rent for property owners. Market forces should be allowed to be at play. But what the government should do, will be to intervene to bring down the high cost of building a house and automatically rents will be low.
“Again what the federal government should do to bring down high rents prevalent in the country today is to embark on the construction of housing estates in all the local governments and then rent them out at subsidised rates.”
He added that rather than government imposing artificial measures of putting ceilings on rents, it should make far more possible citizens’ ability of accessing credit facilities in the form of mortgage to facilitate purchase or lease transaction in the property market.     “For the prices in an urban setting to run within the range of an average Nigerian, land markets have to operate effectively. In this regard, there must be available money and financial infrastructure to provide mortgage facilities in the country which will lessen the financial burden on the buyers. And the interest on the facility obtained from mortgage institutions should be low as not to have ripple effects,” he reasoned.
He describes as “neglect of land issues” a pattern that’s been observed in successive governments which serially have failed to take decisions that reflect his suggestions on how to curb the phenomenon of inadequate housing stock and the attendant cut-throat rent regime. He said, “The issue is that successive governments in the country at the federal level have neglected land issues.
At present, there is no integrated and formalised land arrangement that could boost real property system and create wealth for the nation. It should be noted that an efficient land market is a necessary foundation for the capacity of financial institution to lend money.
“With this, landowners would not find it difficult to invest in real estate development to boost housing in Nigeria thereby making rents affordable. If the land issue is taken care of considerably, I can assure you that government has the capacity and capability to tackle the other variables to reduce the high cost of housing with its attendant high rents which is going beyond the reach of an average Nigerian.”
While the logic in Madukaku’s contention can scarcely be faulted, many Nigerians still frown at a lizze fair property market that is entirely bereft of regulation, saying humans are by their nature uncouth unless checked by government that wields the instrument of law and the monopoly of violence.
“Rent control laws, on the short run, are very useful in our circumstance,” notes Fatai Obajela, a Lagos resident, “because our greedy landlords are simply insufferable so much so that they exploit the occasion to ride rough shod on Nigerians and that with so much impunity.  “Government can on the long run, however, look into the thoughts of Madukaku as feed for new policy initiative that will transform the housing situation in the country.”