The National President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Akintoye Adeoye, has warned that rent prices would continue to rise unless the government urgently addresses structural and economic challenges affecting the real estate sector.

“Rent will continue to go up. And the reason is because of what you call urbanisation, that is, people moving from the hinterland to the cities. We are not building at the rate that people are coming into the cities,” he stated.

He attributed the surge in rent primarily to the forces of supply and demand. “So, what is at play is the forces of demand and supply. So, you have many people who are looking for accommodation, but this accommodation is becoming very scarce. And that pushes the price up.”

Adeoye further explained that the continuous depreciation of the naira is compounding the crisis. “The value of the currency, naira, has depreciated so much. So, the weight of the naira is going down.”

He emphasized the importance of understanding rent increases in the context of currency devaluation. “So, when we say rent is going up, we are looking at rent going up from the angle of the quantity of money, not from the angle of the value of money. So, quantity-wise, rent is going up. But when you look at the value of the currency, even to the landlord, you will realize that it is not actually going up.”

He provided a comparative analysis to drive home his point, “For example, if during the Buhari regime, the dollar was N700, N750, and you are paying house rent of N1m, that was just three years ago. Now, the currency has doubled. You will need N1,500 to buy 1$. So, the rent has not even moved to N2m. Maybe the rent has just moved to N1.2m, N1.3m, N1.5m. The tenants who are paying see that increase as something substantial. But for the landlord who is collecting it, the value of his money has actually reduced.”

Adeoye called on the Federal Government to intervene by easing the burden on real estate developers. “The way out of this is for the government to create enabling environments for developers to develop more. If you apply for land now and you look at the rate at which the government will give you land, and you look at the rate for your building approval, for your layout approval, you will see that the government is even compounding this problem.”

He continued, “Government is telling us that nothing is cheap again. Building materials are not cheap. Why do you want my land to be cheap? Why do you want the approvals to be cheap? Whereas the government is supposed to now begin to look at how to make life better for developers.”

In a direct appeal, he stressed that access to affordable building materials and mortgage loans is key to reducing rent. “So, if we are not getting cheap building materials, affordable building materials, it’s going to be very difficult to get affordable accommodation, affordable housing, affordable homes.”


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