NAN-HE-19
Construction
By Lilian Chukwu
Lagos, Oct. 11, 2017 (NAN) In a bid to proffer solutions to the nation’s housing deficit, a town planning consultant, Mr Omotayo Awomosu, has advised the Federal Government to reform the building construction industry for efficiency.
Awomosu, the Chairman, Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON), Lagos Chapter, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He said that government needs to play more active roles to revamp the building construction industry.
According to him, there is need for the government to formulate good housing policies that will promote the mortgage system in such that more people will have access to mortgage loans.
“Mortgage is the bedrock of housing construction development. Unfortunately, there is no viable mortgage system in the country.
“The government has not got it right; the first step to jump-start development of the building construction industry is to have a functional mortgage system in place.
Awomosu said that the mistake most developers made was financing housing projects with short-term loans.
According to him, this is the reason for many abandoned housing construction projects across the country.
He said that lack of accessible mortgage fund had lured many developers and prospective house owners into borrowing from the commercial banks to finance housing projects.
“Bank loans are short-term loans which are not profitable to be used for financing of long-term projects like housing construction projects.
“Let there be adequate provisions where people can access cheap long-term funds, because housing development is a long-term project that needs long-term financing.
“Until a viable mortgage system is restored in the country, the building construction industry may not record significant growth,” Awomosu said. (NAN)
LUC/AAB/GOK
Edited By Adeboye Ajayi/Olagoke Olatoye