IPC Homes to provide 50,000 houses

IPC Homes Limited, an indigenous real estate firm, has announced its preparedness to provide 50,000 housing solutions by 2020.

According to the firm, the target is to provide real estate investment solutions for all social classes in Nigeria, adding that this would be achieved through the provision of an instalment payment structure that gives interested clients the opportunity to pay over a specified period.

The Managing Director, IPC Homes Limited, Mr. Wale Owomoyela, told journalists at a press briefing in Abuja that the firm had inaugurated its first low cost housing estate called Olive Garden, in Gurku, Nasarawa State.

He said, “With street-level understanding of the Nigerian property market and its shortcomings, IPC Homes aims to provide 50,000 housing solutions by 2020. By solutions, we mean site-and-service products and services.

“At IPC, we believe that the housing deficit in Nigeria requires multiplicity of strategies. We have a deficit of 17 million housing units. The President says that N56tn is needed to bridge the gap. By some accounts, Nigeria’s home ownership rate, currently put at 25 per cent, is very low when compared with the housing situation in some developing and developed countries.”

Owomoyela said available statistics showed that Benin Republic had a home ownership rate of 63 per cent; Kenya, 73 per cent; Singapore, 90 per cent; the United States, 70 per cent; South Africa, 56 per cent; and Libya, 41 per cent.

He noted that the President’s estimate showed that the housing shortfall in the country, which did not cover the cost of providing infrastructure, translated to an average of N3.5m per unit.

Owomoyela said, “While the government is strengthening mortgage institutions, private organisations like us must also chip in our bit to provide housing solutions.

“It must be noted that Nigeria does not have shelter deficit, what we have is housing deficit.

“There is a difference between housing and shelter. Anywhere that a man lives is his shelter, but a house is a place that gives shelter and other conveniences of decent living.”

He argued that the reason why the government’s efforts had not yielded much result was because there existed some disconnect between the housing solutions being proffered and the targeted beneficiaries.

Owomoyela added, “Which government solution is targeted at a barber or pepper seller?

“All the mortgage solutions are targeted at people with decent jobs and above average income.”