Frequent rent hikes are unsettling tenants across Nigeria, putting a lot of families in disarray.

Rising cost of living as reflected in unaffordable food prices, high energy and transportation costs, all driven by galloping inflation that peaked at 33.95 percent in May 2024, has taken joy away from many households. The situation is such that many of these households can no longer afford two meals a day.

This has been made worse by rents hikes, which seem to have become a pass-time for most landlords acting through estate agents.

Experts at a real estate business forum in Lagos recently, canvassed legislation at state government levels to ensure that tenants are not further squeezed at this time of economic challenges.

“Though international best practice does not support legislating rent charges for a private estate developer who has built-to-let, there should be a way government should protect renters from Shylock landlords who increase rent for their tenants on yearly basis,” Yemi Afolayan, a discussant at the forum posited.

Afolayan added that state governments like Lagos, where housing situation is dire, should lead this crusade aimed at lightening the financial burden on families at a time like this when food inflation is mind-boggling, school fees are rising and even moving from one point to another in the cities has become a big issue.

Earlier at a social function to mark 25 years of unbroken democratic governance in Lagos, Babatunde Fashola, former governor of the state and the immediate past minister of Works and Housing, had urged the Lagos State House of Assembly to revisit the state’s Tenancy Law of August 2011.

“At this time of economic challenges and cost of living issue, I think we can go back to the tenancy agreement where landlords should be compelled to collect three months to six months’ rent. This will help in no small way,” Fashola urged the state assembly.

The former minister stressed that the Tenancy Law, which he signed to enable landlords in the state to collect one year rent from new tenants, should be reviewed.

He noted that due to the present economic challenges, the state assembly should review the law to protect tenants from shylock landlords.

In Lagos, rent for small family housing units, which are highly sought after, have gone up by over 30 percent in many locations including the city suburbs where the population is surging. In Ejigbo, Egbeda and Ikotun-Egbe areas of the city, a two-bedroom apartment that was rented for between N250,000 and N300,000 per annum in January 2023, now goes for between N350,000 and N400,000 per annum just 12-18 months after.

For smaller-size apartments such as a room and parlour with toilet and kitchen, otherwise called ‘Self-Contained’, the rent rise is phenomenal. From between N180,000 and N220,000 per annum in 2023, the rent has jumped to N250,000 and N320,000 per annum.

In Enugu, South East Nigeria, on account of high demand coming mainly from high tertiary student population, rent hike is done arbitrarily by landlords. Alfred Ugwoke, a civil servant who lives in Abakpa Nike, a major suburb in the city, told BusinessDay on phone that their major headache today is not much about high food prices as it is about rent hike.

“This time last year, you could get a 3-bedroom apartment for between N200,000 and N220,000; that is now an old story. To rent that size of apartment in my area now, you need between N250,000 and N300,000 per annum, depending on the age of the building,” Ugwoke said.

In Ekiti State, the rent hike is such that it has attracted the attention of the state government which, according to a recent media report, has intervened with an appeal to estate agents to consider the present economic realities and be patient with tenants.

According to the report, a government delegation led by Gboyega Oloniyo, special adviser to the state governor on mortgage and housing, engaged with the leadership and members of the Estate, Rent, and Commission Agents Association of Nigeria (ERCAAN), Ekiti State chapter, at their monthly meeting held in Federal Housing Road , Ado Ekiti to review their operations and activities.

Oloniyo expressed dissatisfaction with the high cost of living in the state, particularly the unending hike in house rents. “Many have attributed this to estate agents who acquire properties from landlords at low costs and lease them out at exorbitant rates. This deprives average citizens of access to decent housing,” the special adviser said.

He noted that many agents and landlords have inflicted pains on their tenants unnecessarily, pointing out that shelter is essential and must be available, accessible and affordable.

Oloniyo revealed that the state government was working to ensure housing availability and affordability for all in the state, stating that 34 hectares of land had been approved for the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to build affordable houses with many other interventions in the pipeline to improve housing conditions in the state.

Mary Oso-Omosotso, director-general of the Office of Community Communications, was also reported to have emphasised the need for guidelines and regulations to curb alleged extortion by the association, which they attributed to quacks infiltrating their ranks.

“Any business that does not solve problems is not a business,” she stressed, urging the association to cooperate with the government to achieve the shared prosperity vision of the state governor, Biodun Oyebanji. (BusinessDay)

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