Mr Olabode Afolayan, the President of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), on Wednesday said the association planned to build 400, 000 housing units nationwide by Dec. 31. Afolayan said in Lagos that the 400,000 units estimate was from the various developments handled by his members nationwide in the year. He said the total number of housing units produced by REDAN members nationwide in 2010 was 80, 802, saying that they intended to make progress this year.
“The estimate of 400, 000 housing units by REDAN is what our members planned to do earlier this year. Last year, we accomplished 80, 802 housing units with few major developers; 400, 000 will not pose much problem, especially with many developers doing something nationwide. Some of our members have estates at various stages of completion. Some are financed by Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) loans and others by customer finance schemes,” he said.
The REDAN boss said that about 40 major developers used state organs to develop about 2,000 housing units each, which would account for 80, 000 housing units alone. He said that some of his members were active at state levels because the state governments wanted to use housing to provide dividend of democracy to the people. Afolayan said the association decided to have a land bank, throughout the federation, for the members, to handle challenges posed by land acquisition. He said the association was also working out modalities to enable members to access funds from Shelter Afrique.
The expert said the association encouraged FMBN to develop an Internal Land Registry to enable the members access FMBN Estate Development Loans.
According to him, REDAN has started compiling the number of housing units completed by its members and expressed optimism that the number would reach 400,000 by the time it would be released in 2012.
REDAN to build 400,000 housing units by Dec. 31
