Lagos, Firm to Deliver 618 Housing Units

• Lagos, Firm to Deliver 618 Housing Units

The Lagos State Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Messrs Brains and Hammers Limited for the provision of housing units in the state.

The Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Gbolahan Lawal, said the government had set a target to deliver 200,000 housing units annually in the next five years in order to bridge the state’s housing deficit of three million.

According to Lawal, the government alone cannot deliver the required housing units, hence the need to involve the private sector.

He stated that the state government had made land available to prospective private developers who had the technical and financial capabilities to deliver affordable housing units.

The MoU with Brains and Hammers Limited is expected to lead to the development of 618 housing units at the Jubilee Estate in Iganmu through a public-private partnership model.

The partners estimated that the project would create 3,590 direct jobs and about 7,000 indirect jobs as well as drive urban redevelopment in the area.

The commissioner said Jubilee Estate was coined by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of Lagos State, adding that the estate would stand as a symbol of celebration for many decades to come.

Lawal added, “The project is a PPP between the Lagos State Government, represented by the Ministry of Housing and IBILE Holdings Limited, on one hand, and Brains and Hammers, one of the foremost housing developers in the country, on the other hand.

“The state stands to derive significant internally generated revenue through the taxes that will accrue from the sale of housing units and will benefit from Land Use Charge and other statutory payments for property.”

He said the estate would have 96 units of two-bedroom flats, 414 units of three-bedroom flats and 108 units of four-bedroom terraced houses subject to actual usable land area on site, in addition to parking facilities and modern infrastructure.

“The project will officially commence in July 2017 and the projected duration is 60 months from the receipt of all required approvals and permits,” the commissioner added.

The Chief Operating Officer, Brains and Hammers, Mr. Ibrahim Wushishi, said the firm would leverage on the best available technology in the form of vibro-flotation, which would be used to stabilise the marshy soil and prepare it to take large structures safely and securely.

He said, “We will also be working with Lafarge Africa Plc, a company recognised as the largest producers of building materials globally, and we will be working with some of the proprietary technology in the form of specialised and customised concrete.

“The second challenge we envision is being able to keep up with demand for the housing units. Due to the strategic location, we have been inundated with demand. As we are only able to build a total of 618 housing units currently, we are saddled with limited supply and very heavy demand.”