Housing Crisis: FG, States Told to Unlock Land, Make Mortgages Affordable

The federal government and state governments have been urged to dismantle barriers to land access, reduce mortgage constraints and strengthen housing institutions to accelerate the delivery of affordable homes to Nigerians struggling with the country’s housing crisis.

The permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Dr Shuaib M.L. Belgore, made the call on Wednesday at the 15th Meeting of the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development in Sokoto, warning that persistent structural challenges continue to undermine efforts to provide decent and affordable accommodation across the country.

Belgore identified limited access to housing finance, insecure land ownership, high construction costs, expensive land registration and titling, bureaucratic bottlenecks and weak coordination between federal and state governments as major obstacles requiring urgent intervention.

He said the country’s housing delivery system must be restructured to reflect the financial realities of low- and middle-income earners, stressing that mortgage products must become more accessible and attractive if more Nigerians are to achieve homeownership.

According to him, land remains fundamental to housing development, making stronger collaboration between federal and state governments imperative, particularly in addressing land administration challenges and ensuring the availability of properly planned land for residential development.

The Permanent Secretary also called for stronger institutional capacity, improved inter-agency coordination, digitalised processes, better use of data and more effective regulation, arguing that well-designed housing policies would achieve little without institutions capable of translating them into tangible results.

He expressed concern that successive efforts to provide adequate housing for Nigerians had recorded limited success, citing the high cost of construction, ownership complications associated with the Land Use Act and fragmented policy implementation as persistent impediments to sustainable housing delivery.

Belgore, however, said housing remained central to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, urging participants to develop practical recommendations that would strengthen housing finance, land administration and institutional accountability.

The meeting, themed “Strengthening Mortgage, Land and Institutional Systems for Accelerated and Inclusive Housing Delivery,” brought together stakeholders to examine reforms capable of expanding access to affordable homes across different income groups and geographical locations.

He urged participants to move beyond policy discussions and produce actionable recommendations, noting that the success of the council would ultimately depend on how effectively its resolutions were implemented by the various levels of government.