Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, the Special Advisor on Housing to the Lagos State Governor, has revealed that the state’s monthly rental program will go into effect either early in 2025 or before the end of 2024.
She said as much at a recent Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority press conference in Ikeja, Lagos.”We all see what is done in other climes, rent is collected on a monthly basis,” she remarked.
We therefore hope to be able to put the monthly rental policy into effect before the year ends or even early in the following one.
Additionally, the rental amount would be determined by the income of the tenants.One advantage of this approach is that it can be tested first in the public sector, where we can determine average salaries.
If successful, it can then be implemented in the private sector.Odunuga-Bakare reaffirmed that the N5 billion set aside for the monthly rental program remained untouchable.
She continued by saying that the Lagos State Government was still attempting to perfect something because of the scheme’s slow start-up.”
When the scheme was to be introduced, the administration that had started the monthly rental scheme was coming to an end,” she said. The governor wants the plan to go into effect by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, and we currently have a new administration.
Recall that in 2021, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, declared that the existing rental model—which requires tenants to pay annual rent in advance to property owners—had grown insufficient to meet the needs of the modern housing market, particularly in urban areas where there is a high and growing demand for real estate.
The governor promoted a monthly rental system, claiming that it would be within the means of low- and middle-class individuals who are burdened by the annual rent requirement.
The suggestion was made by Sanwo-Olu during the National Council on Lands, Housing, and Urban Development’s tenth meeting, which was recently held in Lagos.
He pleaded with legislators to take the recommendation under consideration and to start drafting regulations that would facilitate the switch to a new rental scheme.According to the governor, Lagos is already figuring out monthly rental arrangements for locals who are not big fans of the state’s homeownership program.
“We have a very strong rent-to-own program in Lagos, with a 5% down payment and a 6% simple interest rate that is payable over ten years,” he stated. We are developing a different product that will only be rented out to residents on a monthly basis.
Sanwo-Olu’s position was supported by Babatunde Fashola, the former Minister of Works and Housing, who emphasized that the annual rental system had increased affordability gaps for low-income earners and created inequality in the supply of housing.