ABUJA, Might 15 (IPS) – After graduating in 2019, Jeremiah Achimugu left Sokoto State in northwestern Nigeria for Abuja, the nation’s capital, searching for higher alternatives. However life within the metropolis introduced surprising challenges, particularly the excessive value of housing.
At first, Achimugu stayed together with his uncle and labored as a marketer, incomes 120,000 naira (USD 73) a month. Nonetheless, his wage barely coated his fundamental wants.
“The price of dwelling in Nigeria’s quickly growing capital quickly ate deep into my wage,” he stated. “By the top of the month, I used to be at all times broke. Transportation, meals, and different bills had been simply an excessive amount of.”
When he started trying to find a spot of his personal, he was shocked by the costs. Even a small one-room house in a distant space prices about 500,000 naira (USD 307) a yr.
“There was no approach I might afford that sort of hire regardless that the house was nothing to jot down house about,” he stated.
Few months later, Achimugu resigned from his job and returned to Sokoto. His dream of constructing a life within the metropolis was reduce quick by the hovering value of dwelling.
“The price of dwelling and hire in Nigerian cities is just too excessive for younger folks,” he stated. “However these are the locations the place the alternatives are. Some landlords are benefiting from younger folks coming into the cities by elevating the hire.”
A Continental Rental Disaster
Achimugu’s expertise displays a bigger downside confronted by younger folks throughout Nigeria. About 63 p.c of the nation’s inhabitants is beneath the age of 24, and cities are rising quickly. The United Nations has warned that Nigeria’s city inhabitants is growing nearly twice as quick because the nationwide common. Nonetheless, housing hasn’t saved up with this development. Consequently, the few out there properties are actually overpriced. The World Financial institution estimates the nation has a housing scarcity of over 17 million properties.
In main cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, hire costs can vary from round 400,000 naira (USD 246) to as a lot as 25 million naira (USD 16,000) every year, relying on the placement and sort of house.
With a month-to-month minimal wage of 70,000 naira (USD 43), which is commonly unpaid or delayed, and excessive unemployment, many younger folks can’t afford first rate housing. This makes it tougher for them to cool down, construct robust social connections, or really feel financially safe.
Nigeria will not be alone. Throughout Africa, younger individuals are being priced out of the rental market. Fast urbanization, inhabitants development, and financial hardship have made reasonably priced housing a rising concern. In interviews with younger folks in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria, IPS confirmed that the identical challenges exist throughout the continent.
Formal housing stays past the attain of most Africans, with solely the highest 5 to 10 p.c of the inhabitants capable of afford it. The bulk are left to dwell in casual settlements, a lot of which lack important companies similar to clear water, electrical energy, and correct sanitation. Consultants have warned that with out elevated funding in reasonably priced housing, a rising variety of younger folks will wrestle to discover a place to dwell.
Kwantami Kwame in Kumasi, Ghana, blames capitalism and the greed of actual property homeowners for the excessive value of hire. He advised IPS that the push for fast earnings within the cities is affecting the welfare of younger folks, most of whom are low-income earners.
“A couple of weeks in the past, I used to be in search of a one-bedroom house in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and I used to be requested to pay an upfront two-year hire charge of 38,275 Ghanaian Cedis (USD 2,500). The house wasn’t even as much as customary. The charge didn’t cowl water, electrical energy, or waste payments. It’s actually unfair,” stated Kwame, who famous that in a rustic the place the month-to-month minimal wage is simply 539.19 Ghanaian cedis (USD 45), there ought to be provisions for younger folks to entry reasonably priced housing in cities the place alternatives exist.
Kwame believes governments ought to regulate rents and test the excesses of landlords. However Olaitan Olaoye, a Lagos-based actual property skilled, sees it otherwise. He factors to restricted land availability as a significant factor driving up hire and argues that value controls will not remedy the issue.
“Governments in Africa shouldn’t be setting hire costs after they’re not doing sufficient to sort out inflation, which retains pushing up the price of constructing supplies,” he stated.
“As an example, in a rustic like Nigeria, the elimination of the gasoline subsidy brought on costs to skyrocket. This had a ripple impact on the whole lot else, together with building. It led to a rise in the price of constructing supplies. The federal government then has no ethical proper to instruct landlords to scale back their hire,” Olaoye argued.
Whereas he doesn’t excuse the greed of some landlords and property builders, Olaoye worries that if younger folks already wrestle to hire properties, the dream of proudly owning one could grow to be more and more unrealistic.
“Up to now, it was simpler for folks to construct properties. Costs of constructing supplies had been reasonably priced and life was extra steady. Again then, when folks completed faculty and acquired a job, they may begin saving instantly. They might afford to purchase a automotive, construct a home, and dwell comfortably. However issues have modified,” he stated.
Insufficient Social Housing Packages
Olaoye’s considerations are echoed by Phoebe Atieno Ochieng in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. After securing a instructing job within the capital, she left her household house within the countryside of Busia. Nonetheless, with a month-to-month wage of solely 18,000 Kenya Shillings (USD 140), renting a spot within the metropolis was out of her attain.
“I had no selection however to dwell in a small house supplied by the college administration throughout the faculty premises,” she advised IPS. “The homes listed here are not reasonably priced. A fundamental one-bedroom house prices 120,000 Kenyan shillings monthly. I can’t stability my earnings as a result of I nonetheless should pay taxes, purchase meals, and deal with different day by day wants. Until I get a better-paying job, I can’t handle.”
Ochieng criticizes the Kenyan authorities for its failure to offer satisfactory social housing and guarantee entry to reasonably priced mortgages.
Whereas the Kenyan authorities has launched a social housing scheme just like the Inexpensive Housing Programme to assist low- and middle-income earners safe first rate properties, the initiative has confronted rising criticism. Many argue that the homes being constructed are nonetheless unaffordable, and there are widespread considerations in regards to the potential mismanagement of the scheme. Additionally, the introduction of a compulsory housing tax has sparked outrage, with many questioning why they’re being compelled to fund properties they might by no means qualify for or profit from.
Equally, the Nigerian authorities has made a number of makes an attempt to deal with the housing disaster via numerous nationwide housing applications designed to offer reasonably priced properties in cities. Nonetheless, these applications have typically failed as a consequence of poor implementation, insufficient funding, and corruption. Many housing initiatives have been deserted, leaving the promise of reasonably priced housing unfulfilled for almost all of Nigerians.
South Africa’s housing disaster is worsening as a consequence of fast urbanization, financial challenges, and the legacy of apartheid. Cities like Johannesburg, Cape City, and Durban are seeing an growing variety of folks transfer from rural areas searching for higher job alternatives, placing strain on housing infrastructure.
Throughout apartheid, many Black South Africans had been confined to overcrowded townships on the outskirts of cities, areas that also lack correct infrastructure and companies. As younger folks flock to cities for higher prospects, they face the problem of unaffordable hire, which, in keeping with Ntando Mji, a receptionist in Cape City, is limiting their potential.
Though the federal government has tried to offer backed housing for these with a restricted earnings, the size of the issue is overwhelming, and thousands and thousands are nonetheless ready for properties. “In Cape City, getting a home is so tough. The brokers require a three-month hire deposit, they usually scrutinize your earnings, however even getting accepted for an area is actually onerous,” Mji lamented.
“As a result of it’s primarily business entities that construct homes, they’re so costly. This is the reason the South African authorities ought to intervene by offering lodging at decrease costs and fascinating the personal sector in constructing lower-cost housing in safer areas,” stated Bhufura Majola, who advised IPS that he waited a yr earlier than he might even get a small house in a pupil space removed from the place he works.
He added, “The excessive value of rental costs in South Africa is an enormous deterrent to younger professionals specifically as a result of it takes away their selections of the place to remain, particularly close to locations the place employment is assured. This has pressured many to desert their desires.”
Peace Abiola, who lives in Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria, spent all her financial savings—600,000 naira (USD 369)—on an house final yr. She works as a contract content material creator for manufacturers, incomes an irregular earnings. Now, along with her hire due, she is contemplating returning to her village as a result of she will be able to not afford to maintain up.
“I feel one resolution to this downside is the correct implementation of legal guidelines to regulate the irregular hike in rental costs,” she stated, echoing the frustration of many Nigerians who’ve began protesting and calling on the federal government to behave.
The Nigerian authorities has repeatedly promised to implement insurance policies that defend tenants, however none of these pledges have materialized.
“Right here, we’re simply targeted on survival or learn how to pay the subsequent hire or learn how to get the subsequent meal. This isn’t how life ought to be,” Abiola stated.
Observe: This text is dropped at you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai Worldwide in consultative standing with ECOSOC.
IPS UN Bureau Report
Comply with @IPSNewsUNBureau
Comply with IPS Information UN Bureau on Instagram
© Inter Press Service (2025) — All Rights Reserved. Authentic supply: Inter Press Service
