Realtor canvasses staff housing as employment benefit

By : Bertram Nwannekanma

Date: 9 January 2026 4:22am WAT

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Housing

Housing

To ensure improved access to housing under the Federal Government Renewed Hope Housing Estates, the Principal and Chief Executive Officer of M.I. Okoro & Associates, Dr Meckson Okoro, has advocated a policy shift to compel companies that employ 50 workers and above to incorporate staff housing as part of employment benefits.   He emphasised that this would be provided through Renewed Hope Estates, utilising the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) funding policy and a tenure of 30 years, which would give each beneficiary staff access to housing at the point of employment, rather than the employer deducting without remitting.   The deducted money, Okoro noted, could be used to assist the employee in paying the initial equity contribution of 10 per cent of the housing cost.    He observed that since the government made it a law for workers to contribute to the National Housing Fund by a certain amount deducted at source, most of these contributors do not benefit from owning their houses through these contributions, even when they retire.

Instead of waiting to access this fund at retirement when the money would have lost value due to inflation, the new policy would guarantee more access to housing for workers.     He spoke during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on real estate agency and marketing between QShelter Limited and M.I. Okoro & Associates for the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Housing Estates in Abuja, Kano, and the 2004 Coastal Road Estate in Lagos.     Okoro also noted that for a healthy mortgage market to thrive in Nigeria, the Federal Government should ensure that any site approved for the Renewed Hope Estates receives a clean title in the first place, thereby avoiding the difficulties associated with creating legal mortgages and banks disbursing funds for houses with questionable titles.      He stressed that in the past when the government made an effort to build houses for the masses, such buildings ended up in the hands of big men or some government officials, and cases where land hoarders bought such buildings and ended up in the hands of big men or some government officials who would use their position to acquire the houses, and thereafter resell them to the public, making it very difficult for the houses to reach the targeted beneficiaries.   Calling for an improved version of the policy of the Renewed Hope Estates. Okoro reasoned that if the government, through this housing strategy, could develop 50 million houses over time, it means that 50 million subscribers would pay ground rent or land use charges to the states where properties are developed.   On his part, the Chief Operating Officer of QShelter Limited, Alamu Adegbenga, called on the government to simplify and fast-track title registration processes to further encourage investment in the housing sector.     He disclosed that the Ministry of Housing, in partnership with Continental and General Construction Company (CCGCC), plans to deliver 100,000 housing units nationwide, comprising 20,000 units each in Abuja and Lagos, and 60,000 units across the 36 states.   President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Victor Alonge, expressed confidence in the sales framework, suggesting that a defined percentage of the housing units should be reserved for low-income earners, civil servants, and essential workers.

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