Firm targets 10,000 housing units to bridge deficit nationwide

An indigenous real estate firm, Aimart Realtors  has said it is targeting a total of 10,000 housing units nationwide in order to bridge the country’s housing deficit.

The subsidiary of Aimart International Nigeria Limited, while launching its recent novel project tagged ‘Affordable Homes Scheme’ in Lagos, predicted that by the end of 2020, Nigeria would have a housing deficit of 20 million.

The company stated that the number of housing units needed in the country annually was 1.2million, adding that it was necessary that the country curbed the growth.

The affordable homes scheme, the firm said was part of its effort to complement both the federal and state government’s various housing schemes towards providing more homes.

The Chief Operating Officer,  Aimart, Omogbolahan Babawale, said the firm is targeting a total housing unit of about 10,000 units across the country starting with three locations which include Ibeju-Lekki, Agbara and Badagry) within a 10-year period.

According to Babawale, the firm intend as a matter of value addition and corporate social responsibility, to further discount a number of units to ensure that they give more persons the opportunity to benefit from this scheme.

He hinted that the company also intended to create about 10,000 to 13,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly over the 10-year period, through the project.

Aimart Realtors’ Managing Director, Bukola Iluyomade, highlighted that the vision was beyond profit-making but contributing towards economic recovery by making home-ownership more realistic and accessible.

Iluyomade maintained that this was further made possible by the use of locally-made prefabricated and reinforced materials, bringing down the cost of materials, cost of labour as well as the time for construction.

She revealed also that the firm had partnered with the Lagos Building Investment Company Plc and the Federal Mortgage Bank for citizens to have access to the scheme through proper mortgage financing.

The State Commissioner for Housing, Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, represented by the State Director of Estate, Olayinka Patunola-Ajayi, lauded the company for the housing scheme, because initiatives like this, he said was needed to fix the housing deficit.

The Commissioner explained that budgetary allocations were not enough for the state government to take care of the deficit as the state also had other sectors calling for its attention.