The yearly trend since the 1970s has seen a rapidly expanding urban population (2 to 5% depending on which city you are looking at) plus the fact that economic opportunities which drive the mass rural-urban migration will continue for many years so long as no viable economic options exist in villages and hinterland, the cities will continue to experience high population growth rate and pressure on existing housing.
This rapidly growing population of urban city dwellers
in most of Nigeria’s cities creates many problems one of which is housing
deficit.
In Nigeria’s top cities – Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos to name a few, decent, qualitative and affordable houses are very difficult to come by. Most houses that meet international standards are either for the rich or the upper middle class leaving the low income earners and lower middle class to struggle to own existing low quality homes. The problem of decent low cost housing is so monumental that even the Nigerian government now has to rely on foreign investors to proffer a solution.
Other Sample Nigerian Business Plans
Nigerian Housing Problems in a Nutshell
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17 million houses
are required to adequately address the national housing shortage
·
The cost of
building these houses comes at a huge amount that government is unable to
achieve without private sector involvement
·
Private sector
involvement is limited by inadequate infrastructure to support mass housing
schemes
·
The sheer size of
the housing shortage implies a huge boom in real estate business due to high
demand for rental properties and low cost housing
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Less than 15% of
all urban city dwellers can afford standard housing – with sewage disposal,
running water, quality home fittings, drainage system, electricity and other
habitable amenities.
·
As a result most
city dwellers live in slums and distant towns far from the city center or
their main working areas.
·
Most city dwellers
spend between 30 and 60% of their annual incomes on house rent
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Nigeria’s middle
class population is one of the world’s fastest growing expected to be the
third largest among emerging global markets by 2030 behind China and India
·
Quality low cost
housing units for rent or sale will be in high demand especially from the
middle class
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Market Opportunities for low Cost Housing in Nigeria
Since the population of low income earners in Nigeria exceeds 75% in most cities and the potential income pool is over 9.2 trillion naira per annum just from the low to middle income class (people earning between 25,000 naira to over 150,000 naira per month) that implies that people with huge capital outlay targeting these low to middle income earners can potentially make huge incomes just from targeting this market. There are many housing options that can serve this market but one that best fits into affordable decent housing is self-contained apartments or what some people call studio apartments – a single room with kitchen, toilet and bathroom apartment. This is the most affordable apartment and can reasonably be patronized by low income earners depending on location of the property and quality of the building material. The market pool is so large that vacant apartments in densely populated areas of cities will be taken up within a few days or weeks in the worst case.
Key Areas of Investments and Startup Requirements
Besides the low to middle income market, there are opportunities that can target other segments which also desire low cost housing. There are short term visitors to cities, young married couples, small sized families and specific communities. Also worth noting is the housing needs for each segment. Family sized apartments will not conform with single and recently employed folks just as specific communities e.g retirees, middle income families, civil servants or even members of a church or certain societies may want to reside in closely knit communities and hence will also have different needs. The startup requirements besides capital outlay could also include office setup, recruitments and other essentials.
For a more detailed and bankable Low cost housing real estate business plan in Nigeria you can contact me on: 0803 206 4106 or email me: Paulonwueme@gmail.com
