Lagosians Grapple As Rents Hit New Highs

Renters in Lagos are suffering a lot as a result of Nigeria’s economic crisis, as landlords continue to subside the costs of spiraling inflation, pushing residents further away, ending education for children, and making commutes for workers already notorious.

The sprawling, ever-growing economic capital, which has a population of more than 20 million, has for years struggled to keep up with the demand for housing, adding about 3, 000 people to its population every day.

However, the economy has been shocked by government-led economic reforms, including the elimination of a fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira currency.

Rents are rising in Lagos on both the cheaper — mainland and the wealthy, in a city with millions of informal workers calling home.

Yemisi Odusanya, a 40-year-old cookbook author and food blogger, said, “I might just have to find a way to plead with my landlord.”

Even after her landlord in Lekki increased the rent by 120 percent, she has no idea where else to find a better deal for her family of seven after giving birth to twins last year.

Transportation worker Bartholomew Idowu remarked with force, “I’m planning to pack out,” despite not knowing where his and his children would move.

The landlord of the mainland resident’s landlord imposed a 28-percent increase in the amount of rent, which increased from 350, 000 naira ($232) annually to 450, 000, which is a significant sum for a nation with an $835 GDP per capita.

Read more about “Not For The Poor: Indonesians In Capital Face Housing and Commute Woes.”

changing schools

Official year-over-year inflation in January decreased from December’s 34.80 percent figure to 24.48 percent as a result of a recent revision in the government’s inflation data.

That has provided little comfort to regular Nigerians.

According to journalist Dennis Erezi, “the way out at the moment is to look for a way to pay,” adding that moving is still less expensive than paying his 31 percent rent.

When his landlord’s rent more than doubled to 2.5 million naira a year and a half ago, personal trainer Jimoh Saheed was forced to leave his one-bedroom apartment in a middle-class Ikoyi neighborhood.

Since they no longer live close enough to their classes to walk to them, their two children had to switch schools and now have to pay for transportation because of his relocation to the mainland.

His new landlord increased his rent by 25% in the spring of last year.

The 39-year-old said his earnings have not kept up with the pace of inflation despite putting in more work, and that “this is affecting me emotionally, it’s affecting me mentally, and in fact, physically.”

According to attorneys, rent increases are supposed to be negotiated between parties and cannot be unilaterally imposed.

Attorney Valerian Nwadike, who noted an increase in tenant-landlord disputes in the previous year, told AFP that laws are rarely enforced without the threat of a lawsuit.

Luxury Market &nbsp

Nigerians have endured the worst economic crisis in a generation for almost two years, despite the government’s hope that its economic reforms will eventually pay off.

According to housing analyst Babatunde Akinpelu, high interest rates leave the majority of people with mortgages and a bureaucratic regulatory environment as structural issues at play.

An unending stream of people are poured in from Lagos, where an overwhelming number of jobs are located.

Many new developments are targeted at the high-end market, including foreigners, Nigerians in the diaspora, or oil sector workers, many of whom make a lot of money as cranes and construction sites whirr through the city.

According to economist Steve Onyeiwu, the result is a bifurcated housing market where the luxury sector’s increased supply doesn’t trickle down to the rest of the housing stock.

Even as the naira’s value has dropped, a director at Island Shoreline, a property management company, said that the majority of (Lagos’s) landlords are subject to dollar-denominated expenses, such as loans or mortgages for properties abroad, adding that his own landlord has recently attempted to raise his rent 100%.

He noted that there is currently a “snowball effect” of rising prices, and that improved public transportation, such as the new rail line connecting Lagos and Ibadan, should ease pressure. He requested that his name not be used because rent increases are sensitive.

Both landlords and renters try to bargain a good deal to prevent inflation because leases are typically paid upfront for anywhere between one and three years.

Real estate agent Ismail Oriyomi Akinola, who noted 20% increases on the wealthy Victoria Island, called the current spike in rents “alarming.”

Every person should have good shelter, he said. Not just for the wealthy, though.

Source: Channels TV