ACCI To Partner AIHS On Property Profiling To Unravel Housing Shortage, Regulate Rating, Others

In a bid to keep the Government and citizens abreast of needful information about property status, sales, and acquisition in the country especially the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) in partnership with the Africa International Housing Show (AIHS) is set to embark on a programme tagged ‘Property Expo’.

The project aims to create a fora that offers a seemingly effortless access to housing statistics and property information related to sales, rent, and acquisition through documentation.

Speaking on the new development in an interview with Africa Housing News, the Chairman Board of Trustees, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Prince Oluseyi Lufadeju, said the idea of the Expo was part of the duo’s commitment to aid, grow, and promote property documentation in the country.

The initiative, which according to him is different from previous Expos will help create awareness, sensitize the FCT communities, enlighten professionals on what is available and areas that need improved infrastructural attention, while also providing property rating recommendations to the government to avoid rating imbalance.

“The Abuja International Housing Show, as well as the Abuja Chamber of Commerce, have been brought together to collaborate and to find a way of documenting the properties in the various communities in Abuja, in such a way that we will have an idea of these properties in the residential areas to know what types of units are there, the materials they were they were made of, how old the properties are, dimension of the structures’ facilities, the value of the properties when they were first constructed, and what the current rental and sale values are.

“It will provide a lot of information to the housing sector that you can know the appreciation or depreciation of properties from time to time. So, in other words, if you do an assessment this year, it is at this particular level that with good maintenance and community development you’ll expect the value to go up next year.

“We want to do an Expo that will give the Abuja residents; either people who want to rent, sell, or buy properties a good idea of what they are trying to buy or what they are dealing with”, he said.

He revealed that, apart from the documentation of existing properties as at the time the structures were approved, there seems to be no subsequent information about them, hence describing it as inappropriate.

While noting that the Expo is not limited to the FCT, Lufadeju said that the effort would be replicated in other parts of the country on successful completion of the first phase in Abuja.

“This will not be limited to the beautiful facilities we have in Asokoro, Maitama, Wuse, Apo, Garki, among others; we will also go into other metropolitan areas and area councils and do an assessment of the properties that are available. Then, we can determine the type of community we are in when we know the type of property that is available. Invariably, this initiative will be beneficial to both the Government and the community”, he added.