The post Lekki Gardens repositions, assures clients and stakeholders of safe investment appeared first on 9japroperty.

The post Stakeholders seek pension fund investment in housing appeared first on 9japroperty.

Fasoto, who gave a keynote address at the investiture of Dr. BolarindePatunola-Ajayi as the 22nd President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, said the development was capable of tanishing the image of the profession.

He said the institution should seek collaboration with relevant professional bodies and come up with effective measures to check and penalise errant individuals.

The Chairman of the investiture and former President of the NIESV, Mr. Joe Idudu, also urged the institution to seek government’s protection against the infiltration of quacks.

He said indigenous practitioners should be encouraged to build their professional conduct on ethical standards.

Patunola-Ajayi said the institution would continue to ensure the conformity with ethical standards and best practice of the profession.

He said, “Good image is very essential in the rating of any profession. The perception of the public and the clients about our services is one of the yardsticks to determine the level of patronage of our services.

“Negligence is a breach of duty between the professionals and their clients. Our advocacy to members on professionalism will be intensive to ensure that we maintain the enviable standards required by the users of our services.”

According to him, the profession, which cuts across several facets of human endeavours including governance, economy, management and environment, requires professional expertise, adding that unprofessional practices may lead to loss of resources.

PUNCH.

The post Stakeholders condemn activities of quacks in estate surveying appeared first on 9japroperty.

The post Stakeholders move to tackle dearth of building artisans appeared first on 9japroperty.

The stakeholders, who spoke at the recently concluded three-day Abuja Housing Fair, which was organised by FESADEB Communications Limited, noted that the move would eliminate excessive profiteering by landlords and property developers.

“There is a need for a regulatory framework that will cap prices at which houses can be sold. This is to checkmate excessive profiteering by private landlords and estate developers, and save low-income earners from exploitation.

“There is also a need to encourage corporate organisations to incorporate the provision of homes for the communities as part of their corporate social responsibility,” a communiqué issued at the end of the fair read in part.

It added that the private sector and development partners needed to drive research for and development of alternative building technologies in terms of providing the financial resources and technical assistance for tested solutions to drive structural transformation.

According to the communiqué, the challenge of poor infrastructural facilities to providing affordable housing needs to be addressed.

Participants at the fair noted that the Federal Government had over the years put in place a number of initiatives to grow the housing sector, the most recent being the setting up and operationalisation of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company; and the development of the Land, Housing and Urban Development Roadmap to promote national building standards in collaboration with private developers to enhance the implementation of the government’s housing vision.

Another, according to the participants, is the establishment of vocational training centres to build the capacity of unskilled workers involved in the housing delivery chain.

The communiqué, however,stated that in spite of the potential for growth in the mortgage market proffered by these initiatives, the evolution of the housing sector had remained replete with new dynamics, which required sustainable solutions to broadening access to affordable housing.

The communiqué added, “Part of this solution is building synergy among all the stakeholders and adopting a value chain approach to housing delivery in Nigeria. Over the years, focus has been on closing the housing deficit gap, which in the real sense is misleading and not sustainable. This has resulted in treating the various components of the housing delivery chain as individual entities, hence it has yielded unsustainable results.

“For more sustainable progress to be made towards solving Nigeria’s housing problems, there is a need to de-focus closing the housing deficit gap, and to pursue overarching value chain and market-based approach, which links together all the various components of the housing delivery chain.

“Some of the approaches currently adopted to address the supply and demand sides of housing finance are fashioned ‘top-down’, bereft of sufficient stakeholder participation and inclusive engagement that are critical for successful implementation.”

According to the communiqué, the stakeholders noted that high cost of housing as well as limited debt finance options and mortgage insurance appeared on top of the lists of issue affecting access to housing finance.

The post Stakeholders call for regulation of house prices appeared first on 9japroperty.

The stakeholders also called for urgent attention from relevant professionals to reduce the problem to the barest minimum.

Speaking at a meeting between Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Yaba Cell, the Lagos State Building Control Agency and the Oba of Igbobi-Sabe Kingdom, Owolabi Adeniyi, the stakeholders said there was a need to brainstorm and fashion a way out of the incessant cases of building collapse in the state and the country at large.

According to them, if buildings continue to collapse at the rate they do in the country, lives and properties will no longer be considered safe even in the comfort of peoples’ homes.

The Chairman of Yaba Cell of BCPG, Mr. Friday Chukwu, said the issue of building collapse had become a perennial problem.

Chukwu stated that Lagos State alone had 60 per cent of building collapse incidents in the country, and called on the relevant agencies to come up with a policy that would ensure that every stage in the building construction process was approved in order to check the menace.

According to Adeniyi, the spate of building collapse has gone to a level where strategic publicity is needed to send the appropriate message to everyone in the country.

“As stakeholders, we mortgage our lives and properties because of personal aggrandisement, not minding the overall interest of all in order to make quick money,” he said.

A director at LASBCA, Mr. Adeoye Thomas, said the collapse of buildings could not be eradicated but could be reduced by the government and all stakeholders working together.

He said that it was necessary for residents to report to relevant authorities whenever they discovered a structure under construction without the proper processes being followed or if a building was showing signs of being distressed.

Thomas attributed the failure of buildings in some parts of the state to illegal construction, adding that before building, it was necessary to get necessary permits from the government.

“It is cheaper to obtain genuine approval before developing your property than paying bribes to settle officials of the agency,” he added.

According to him, the incidence of building collapse can be reduced by identifying distressed buildings and engaging competent professionals in the building production process.

He said the state government was working seriously to address the problems associated with building approval delays.

An engineer, who attended the meeting, Mr. Victor Akpan, said another major cause of building collapse was the pressure from banks on developers who rush to meet the time given to them to repay their loans.

He noted that other causes of collapse of buildings were the use of poor quality materials and non-involvement of relevant government agencies in the building process.

A builder, Mr. Wale Karunwi, said the problem had to do with professionals who for one reason or the other refused to do the proper thing in the construction process.

According to him, with the way things are going, more buildings will give way at some point in the state and the country.

“The incident at the Synagogue Church of All Nations is a clear example. There are professionals in that church who saw what was going on there and kept quiet,” he said.

PUNCH.

The post Building collapse: Stakeholders search for solutions appeared first on 9japroperty.

Participants at a one-day management retreat of the FHA, who made the call, also urged the government to transform the organisation into a housing regulatory agency for a better control of the sector.

A communiqué issued at the end of the retreat stated that the participants believed that the transformation of the agency would enable it to make better impact as the government’s foremost housing agency.

“Participants noted that the proposed private sector-driven Federal Housing Corporation, which the Bureau of Public Enterprises’ reform document recommended for incorporation as the successor entity to the FHA should inherit the commercial housing component of the authority’s mandate,” the communiqué read in part.

It added that the retreat was declared open by the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi.

Participants, according to the communiqué, were drawn from the FHA’s technical board, interim management team and other stakeholder groups, who recommended that the reform document should be realigned to meet with current realities in the country’s housing sector.

“The government needs to provide adequate financial empowerment for the FHA to enable it deliver on its responsibilities as enunciated in the social housing component of the reform package,” the communiqué stated.

It also noted that the 18-month tenure given to the interim management team was inadequate and called for the upgrade of the current interim structure to a full tenure of four years to enable the management pursue reform processes.

The communiqué read in part, “While noting that the government was not contemplating the privatisation of the FHA, the participants said the restructuring and commercialisation of the agency deserved the support of all stakeholders. The reform of the FHA for effective housing delivery is an imperative action.”

According to the communiqué, participants also commended President Goodluck Jonathan for approving the restructuring and commercialisation of the FHA and also called attention to the misalignment between population growth and the nation’s urban development.

They also called for the prioritisation of the provision of social and affordable housing in the country.

The post Empower FHA for social housing, stakeholders advise FG appeared first on 9japroperty.

Some of the problems plaguing the building and construction industry were largely identified in the year 2014, which was described as eventful by stakeholders.

According to them, identification of the problems will serve as the basis for policy making and implementation this year.

The President, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Mr. Ademola Olorunfemi, said,

The post Housing sector on track for growth ? Stakeholders appeared first on 9japroperty.