By Enitan Abdultawab
Lagos State Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, has advised young workers struggling with high rental costs to consider living with their parents, relatives or sharing accommodation instead of taking on apartments they cannot comfortably afford.
Hamzat made the recommendation during a question-and-answer session on Nigeria Info FM on Thursday, while responding to concerns about how a young worker earning ₦100,000 monthly could cope with annual rent of about ₦1m.
According to him, young people should choose accommodation based on their current financial capacity rather than feeling compelled to immediately rent a self-contained apartment or mini-flat.
“Don’t let us misunderstand ourselves as a people. We are cultural people. Do you understand? So, if I start work as a young person and I’m not married, a lot of us live with our parents. A lot of us live with our cousins,” Hamzat said.
He stressed that there was nothing wrong with starting modestly, noting that young workers could move into better accommodation as their income improved.
“So, if you don’t start from the top self-contained, you don’t start from the top. You start from the average depending on,” he said.
The deputy governor also advised residents to keep their rent expenses below 40 per cent of their income, pointing out that workers still had to cater for food, clothing and transportation.
“In fact, if you spend more than 40 per cent of your income on rent, it is too high because you must eat, you must buy clothes, you must do transportation,” he said.
Hamzat further advocated mortgage financing as a more sustainable route to home ownership, arguing that Nigerians should move away from the practice of paying the full cost of a house at once.
“We cannot continue to buy houses the way we buy rice and yam,” he said, adding that Lagos had a mortgage board to help residents access housing finance.
He explained that the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency number was also useful in establishing residents’ identities, addresses and places of work when assessing their ability to repay housing loans.
Using a ₦7m property as an example, Hamzat said a prospective homeowner could pay 10 per cent, or ₦700,000, upfront and spread the remaining payment over 10 years.
“Some people pay 25,000 monthly or 35,000, whatever it is, depending on your income,” he said.
According to him, such a system would make home ownership more achievable for residents who cannot afford to make a lump-sum payment.
“That is the way to go because we know that a lot of people will not be able to afford to pay a one-shot deal,” Hamzat said.
He also encouraged young people to start with smaller properties and gradually work their way towards better homes as their earnings and savings grow.
However, Hamzat acknowledged that the housing crisis could not be addressed through financing alone, stressing the need for higher incomes and a more stable economy.
“What is important is we must also build our economy in such a way that people earn better, you understand, so that everybody can be uplifted, and that is the bottom line,” he said.
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