High house rent forces low-income earners out of city centres

On Easter Sunday morning, when Chika Udeh, a content creator, was set for church service, his second this year, he got an unpleasant news that marred the rest of his day.

The news, contained in a letter from his landlord and served by his lawyer, informed him of a 100- percent hike in his rent.

“From N800,000 to N1.6 million for this cubicle he called a flat, no. I will rather pack out,” he cried out.

But where to pack is the challenge as his one-bedroom apartment seems to be the cheapest in the semi-highbrow Gbagada Phase 2 Estate in Lagos mainland area.

Meanwhile, the lawyer, who was still around to collect a signed copy of the letter from Udeh, without human feelings, advised him to renew or pack out before the rent expires in three months to avoid eviction.

Aside from being a content creator, Udeh also teaches French Language in two schools on Lagos Island.

Sadly, despite taking on more work, his earnings have not kept up with the pace of inflation, while his financial needs are increasing daily.

Unable to pay the new rent, he was evicted three months after the expiration, leaving him with no option than to move from Gbagada, an expensive and clean neighbourhood, to a cheaper apartment in Shomolu, a low-income area.

His worry now is that he may likely postpone his wedding plans again due to lack of funds, while risking losing his fiancée to a suitor with a deep pocket.

While Udeh did not move too far in search of cheaper apartments, many in his shoes, especially families and low-income earners that need bigger apartments, are moving very far, even out of the city centres for cheap shelter.

Niyi Ademola, a civil servant, commutes several kilometres daily from Ijanikin in Ojo to Alausa in Ikeja for work, all because of a cheaper apartment.

The closer I live to Alausa, the more money I spend on food, education and especially rent. Even the face-me-I-face-you rooms are very expensive in Ikeja. How much is my salary? The high inflation has made the minimum wage less impactful for we workers,” he decried.

In the same vein, Alaga Tomibiri, an electrical engineer, has changed apartments twice in the last three years because of the incessant hike in rent by Port Harcourt landlords.

He couldn’t afford an almost 200 percent hike in his Rumuokwuta flat, from N1,000 to N2.5 million, which was surprisingly paid by a young tenant.

“They see rent as their own Government House and oil well. They increase every year, from 100 to 200 percent and will use cult boys to evict you a month after failure to pay the new high rent. They will tell you nothing will happen and nothing will really happen even if you go to the police or court,” Tomibiri lamented.

From Ogbunabali, to Rumuokwuta, which are in the city centres, the father of four has moved to far away Obigbo, where he pays N1 million a year for a two-bedroom flat.

“It is even the cheapest around here because the same landlords in the city centres have houses here and they are also hiking the rent due to the rush to the area by people who cannot afford the high rent for apartments in the city centres,” he noted.

The case seems worse in Abuja as residents hardly dare live in the city centres if they are not politicians, top government functionaries, contractors and top business and corporate executives, all because of the outrageous rents.

Anastasia Ejule, a civil servant, captured the reality of the situation saying that from the high rent, expensive schools, to fewer affordable markets, Abuja city centres are not designed for the poor.

“The government has been intentional at keeping many outside the city centres and the weapons have been high rent and expensive schools. That is why most civil servants live in the outskirts of Abuja. I stay in Gwarinpa, some of my colleagues stay as far as Gwagwalada, Kwali and some areas in Nasarawa State because they cannot afford the high rent within the city centres,” she said.

The issue for her is paying from N2 to N3 million for a two or three-bedroom flat every year within the city centre, with some going as far as N5 million, depending on how highbrow or secured the area or estate is.

“Which civil servant can pay that, how much is our salary even with the minimum wage? So, the high rent naturally keeps many in the outskirts of Abuja and will keep doing so because the landlords are not relenting at the yearly increment of rent,” she decried.

On his part, Emeka Ezeokoye, an auto spare parts dealer at Ladipo Market in Mushin, Lagos, is moving his real estate investments to the East, especially to Awka and Owerri, where rent is high.

“My business mentor has relocated to Enugu, and he is making almost the same amount from rent in Awka and Owerri. A two-bedroom flat in Owerri is from N800,000 and those who cannot pay move to nearby villages where rent is cheap. Same in Enugu now, especially with the new roads the governor is constructing,” Ezeokoye said.

Though many whose sources of income are declining and who cannot afford the high rent in the city are moving far from the city centres and others are relocating to cheaper places and to their villages, such drastic measures have not offered the much needed respite in the face of the economic hardship.

“I hear people telling those who cannot sustain a living in the cities to relocate to the villages as if the villages are exempted from the impact of the economic realities. It is even worse there because there are few opportunities there, cost of living is high, fuel is even more expensive and, especially insecurity is worse.

“What of those who don’t have a village to go to, or house to stay in their villages or something to do in the village,” Kunle Akogun, a Lagos landlord, said.

The landlord blamed the high rent on the high cost of building materials, the many charges by the government on a single building while under construction, and afterwards, multiple charges such as Land Use Charge.

“Cement is over N10,000 a bag and Dangote and BUA Cement keep declaring profit, yet the government does not see reason to intervene and they claim to work to close the housing deficit gap. How? We landlords are following market trends and demand and supply. Besides, a house is an investment for landlords, after spending huge sums to build it, you need return on your investment,” Akogun noted.

But he frowned at the manner with which some landlords go after the rent and the incessant increment, forgetting that they were once tenants and their tenants can build their own houses tomorrow.

“There are tenancy laws guiding rent increment, tenant eviction and others. I follow them because I was once a tenant and my landlords never gave me trouble.

“I increase my rent every three years, but not 100 percent. Rather than evict a tenant, I allow them to exhaust the three-six months grace stipulated by the law and most comply,” he noted.

But Celestine Amivigh, another landlord, thinks that most tenants take the landlords for granted, hence the need to use all means possible to collect the rent, increase when necessary to also maintain the property.

“If you allow some tenants, they will stay in your house forever and will not pay. They forget that the house is your investment and the increment reflects the current value of the property and also the economic realities.

“Some of us landlords don’t work again and rent is our only source of income. Most tenants don’t realise this,” Amivigh said.

Also frowning at what he described as excessive rent increment by landlords in the state, Sa’ad Olumoh, a member of Lagos State House of Assembly, condemned the development.

Olumoh, who represents Ajeromi Ifelodun Constituency 1, decried that the excessive rent increment has led to an increase in the number of homeless people across the state, hence presenting the above as a motion on ‘matter of urgent public importance’ at the Lagos Assembly recently.

On the part of the government, there have been promises to checkmate arbitrary rent increments and claims to provide affordable housing.

The Lagos State Government once introduced the rent-to-own scheme, which allows beneficiaries to make a five percent initial payment and spread the balance over 10 years.

But it seems like a scratch on the surface for the huge gap in the state’s housing deficit for its over 20 million residents.

Also, recently, the Lagos State Government said it is working to introduce monthly and quarterly rent payment options as part of efforts to reduce the financial pressure on residents, especially low-income earners.

For Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, Commissioner for Housing, Lagos State, the planned policy is a continuation of the state’s drive to make housing more accessible and affordable.

He noted that many residents find annual rent payments difficult and that the new system is expected to provide relief.

“We believe that monthly or quarterly payment options will give people more breathing space and reduce the stress associated with sourcing lump sums,” he added.

The Enugu and Oyo State governments are doing the same. But, Chijoke Umelahi, an Abuja-based lawyer, thinks that such ambition plans will only work when all stakeholders in the housing sector are carried along.

“The government needs to carry along the stakeholders, especially landlords and developers before rolling out such payment options. But they should work to improve the economy too because the tenants are weighed down by the economic hardship. They need to make money to pay no matter how small the one month rent option would be,” he noted.

While hoping that the government will keep to its easy rent options and housing promises, Umelahi noted that the first thing should be concerted efforts to reduce the unbearable prices of building materials, especially cement that is manufactured here.

If that fails, he noted that tenants can resort to the law as Section 37 of the 2015 Tenancy Law prohibits unreasonable rent hikes and allows tenants to seek legal redress in courts.

“The problem is the right interpretation and enforcement of the law because landlords are not allowed by the law to increase rent every year. No law allows that, but tenants hardly challenge landlords and the government, which ordinarily should protect the interest of the tenants, shy away for reasons one cannot tell,” Umelahi said.

For many tenants, there is no respite, even in the nearest future as they seek self-help in handling the high rent issue; from moving to smaller apartments, cheaper neighbourhoods, outside city centres, and at the last resort, to their villages.