In the next 12-15 months, baring funding challenges, about 2,000 low income home seekers would be bidding goodbye to the crowded housing market as Ifitech and Associates Limited, a fast rising real estate development firm, embarks on housing schemes which market watchers have described as ambitious.
The company has expanded its frontiers beyond the shores of Lagos where it opened for business nine years ago in Ibeju Lekki, a rural community on the outskirts of the sprawling city. This time, the company is in Enugu and Imo and while it has six schemes in Lagos, it as two in Imo and one in Enugu, all under the brand names Westpoint Gardens and Solid Base Gardens Estate.
Prices of plots in these estates start from as low as N250, 000 per plot in line with target market which is the low income earners. The most expensive estates are the ones in Ibeju-Lekki axis near the Dangote Refinery at the Free Trade Zone and other upcoming landmark projects in Lagos. The price of plots in the Lagos estates range from N1million to N2.5million.
To fully achieve its objective, payment for plots in these schemes have been structured to run over a period of six to twelve months and buyers who pay out-right buy at cheaper prices while those that want to spread payment over 12 months pay a little higher.
“Presently, we have over 2,000 subscribers who have all started to build their own houses in addition to the ones we are building and selling to people who may not want to go through the rigors of starting from land ownership”, said Ifeanyi Isaac, the company’s CEO.
“We hope that by the end of 2017, we would have been able to deliver a minimum of 2,000 housing units and, by 2020, we would have been able to deliver 10,000 units more. We are determined and we already have more than 200 personnel helping to push this ambition. We understand the challenges in the economy, but with the determination we will surely get there”, he assured.
Though these are low income estates, the developer assured further that residents and property owners would have access to top-notch infrastructure and revealed that all the estates currently have perimeter fencing with road networks, drainage systems, water, security, play areas for family and shopping centers. “We are hoping to create estates that will function with a communal lifestyle; where people will live in peace and harmony irrespective of religion or ethnicity”, he said.
As part of efforts at reducing Nigeria’s housing deficit, Isaac urged the government to partner with competent real estate developers like Ifitech and Associates Limited, advising that this could be done through Private Public Partnership (PPP) where the government provides land to developers at reduced prices and ensures that houses built under the arrangement come to the market at reduced prices.
“The government can also ensure that mortgage banks provide long term payment facilities for the developed houses and ensure that the interest rate is at single digit. The government should also give concessions in the areas of payments for land documentation and titles so that developers can give bargain prices to ordinary Nigerians. These are things the government can do and, over the next 20 years, the housing deficit in the country will come down”, he hoped.
He disclosed that his company was working with the Imo State government to provide mass housing, adding that the firm was also looking for opportunities to work with other state governments to develop affordable mass housing for Nigerians.
CHUKA UROKO
