The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola said collecting two to three years of advance rent payment by property owners from tenants was causing more harm than good to Nigeria’s economy.
According to The Punch, Fashola made this remark on Thursday during an address at the 2022 National Council Meeting on Lands, Housing and Urban Development, the 11th in the series, which was held in Sokoto State.
However, the former Lagos State governor advocated for monthly rent payments across the country, asking the state governments to look at ways to make the payment of rent easier and more comfortable for both tenants and landlords.
Fashola said, “I concede that the majority of the houses belong to the private sector and they expect legitimate income from rent for the properties.
“However, I hold a strong view that asking for two to three years rent in advance from working-class people (as distinct from corporate tenants who may prefer to pay in advance) does more harm than good to all concerned and to the economy.
“Interestingly, rent is a matter over which the Federal Government has no constitutional authority because it is a local matter and rightly so.
“But I use the platform of this meeting to challenge and provoke all state representatives to thoughts and action about how we can make the payment of rent easier and comfortable for both tenants and landlords.”
This, according to the former Lagos State Governor, would be a most revolutionary intervention when working-class people could pay their rent when they received their salaries.
“This is possible if we try and this will give the fullest possible expression to the theme of this meeting which is, ‘Housing our people, by all of government and all our people,” he stated.
Fashola told delegates at the meeting that at the Federal Government level, “we have introduced Rent-to-Own into our acquisition/sale model for the disposal of the houses in the National Housing Programme.”
