Less than 300,000 houses being built annually — REDAN

Maureen Ihua-Maduenyi

The number of houses built in the country annually hovers between 250,000 and 300,000, despite the need for more in the light of the housing deficit in the nation, the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria has said.

The National Vice President and Chairman, REDAN South-West zone, Mr. Taiwo Ogunbodede, stated this at a forum organised by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Ikosi-Isheri Cell in Lagos, on the role of developers in the prevention of building collapse.

He said the figure represented a combination of efforts by the

government and developers in the private sector.

“We haven’t done more than 300,000 yearly and this is insignificant compared to the 17 million housing deficit that we have to tackle as a country,” he stated.

According to reports, housing production stood at 100,000 per annum as of two years ago, while the country needs about 700,000 units annually to meet the Millennium Development Goals and also reduce the deficit.

It is estimated that with a housing deficit of 17 million units, the country needs over N50tn to bridge the gap.

Ogunbodede noted that developers had a crucial role to play in addressing the housing deficit in the country and urged them to abide by building regulations before commencing any construction.

“In spite of the deficit, attention must be on quality and not just quantity,” he said.

He added that the issue of building collapse in the country could be attributed to many factors, including inadequate preliminary works, adoption of wrong foundation, poor concrete mix ratio, absence of approved structural design, poor building material specification, and weather-related problems, among others.

Ogunbodede stated that the law governing all approved structural details of building materials and effective supervision by the local town planning authorities should be enforced and not compromised.

A professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences at the University of Lagos, Musbau Salau, said professionals in the built environment should quit trying to justify their sincerity of purpose by laying blames on others when buildings collapsed.

Salau also said the government must allow town planning authorities to perform their functions undisturbed, while unending court cases over misbehaviour of developers and errant professionals should be discouraged by the judiciary if the tempo of building collapse was to be reversed.

 The professor also called the attention of regulatory bodies to greedy developers and contractors, who for economic reasons, sometimes grind caked cement and use reinforcement from collapsed and demolished structures for new construction.

The President of BCPG, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, said mass housing was the way out of the country’s housing deficit, but that it was also a challenge as monitoring could be compromised in the process.

The Coordinator, BCPG Ikosi-Isheri Cell Unit, Mr. Solomon Ogunseye, said it had been established that the development of building projects had become an all-comers’ affair.

“The frequent collapse of buildings in Nigeria, and Lagos especially, with its attendant loss of lives and properties, should be addressed by all professionals in the building industry with relevance to the developers,” he said.

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