Bauchi and Jigawa residents have expressed concern over the poor condition of an estimated 5,000 vacant housing units.

The houses were constructed under viable programmes initiated by the federal and state governments many years ago to enable Nigerians as part of efforts geared towards addressing housing deficits in the country.

Surveys in Bauchi, Dutse, and Gombe showed that construction work on hundreds of houses has been completed while others are at various completion stages.

Some of the vacant houses had shown signs of decay due to non-allocation to deserving families to make them habitable.

The trend resulted in adverse economic and societal problems, including wasted investment, job losses, increased crimes, and disruption of urban planning.

A cross-section of the residents who spoke to journalists decried the dilapidation of the housing units in spite of huge investments in the project.

In Bauchi, high prices keep people at bay.

For instance, the Bauchi government has implemented several housing projects, including the Unity Housing Estate, the Family Homes Funds Affordable Housing Project, and the Renewed Hope Estate.

The Unity Housing Estate, conceived in the last five years, is being implemented under a public-private partnership arrangement between the state government and Terraquest Development Company Limited.

The project, sponsored by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, involved the construction of 1,000 low-cost housing units for civil servants.

The housing estate located on Jos Road in Bauchi metropolis has reached various stages of completion.

Also, the Family Homes Funds Affordable Housing Project is a social housing scheme initiated in 2020 that aims to provide affordable housing for low and middle-income earners; it involved the construction of 2,500 housing units.

The project, which took off in 2020, is the largest in the state, designed to offer great opportunities for average Nigerians to own houses at affordable prices with options for long-term and flexible mortgages.

In 2016, the federal government, under the National Housing Programme, constructed hundreds of houses along Ningi-Airport Road in the Bauchi metropolis.

The houses are available in one-, two-, and three-bedroom options and semi-detached bungalows.

President Bola Tinubu’s administration has embarked on mass construction of houses under its Renewed Hope Estate, which is ongoing, to address the housing deficit further.

The government is constructing low-cost houses in Bauchi. Most of the completed houses were vacant due to delays in the allocation to interested buyers.

George Adams, a resident of Bauchi, decried the poor condition of the houses caused by prolonged abandonment.

He said the high cost of the houses prevented many people from participating in the programme to enable them to own decent houses.

“The prices of these properties are steep, with a single plot of land along Kano or Jos roads costing between N19 and N20 million,” Mr Adams said.

Adamu Gabarin, a lecturer in the Department of Building Engineering, Federal Polytechnic Bauchi, opined that houses built by governments and real estate developers were largely unoccupied despite the country’s housing deficit.

He attributed the trend to the exorbitant prices of the houses that were occasioned by the high cost of building materials.

“The cost of building materials such as cement, steel, and wood had increased significantly over the years, making it difficult for developers to build affordable houses,” he said.

Ibrahim Sani, a member of the civil society organisation in Bauchi, said the process of acquiring land and securing titles was fraught with cumbersome processes, resulting in hikes in prices and rent.

“The cost of labour in Nigeria is high, and this is reflected in the cost of building houses,” he said, adding that the price of basic amenities was high, including roads, electricity and water supply provided at the housing units. “Developers often provide the infrastructure, which adds to the cost of building houses.”

Corroborating an earlier opinion, Dalyop Emma, an estate expert, stressed the need for a robust mortgage system to enhance access to housing finance to reduce the financial burden of ownership.

“Without access to affordable housing finance, many Nigerians are forced to rent or live in substandard houses and conditions,” Mr Emma said.

Vandals and rainstorms pose threats in Jigawa.

In Jigawa, hundreds of houses inaugurated under the Federal Integrated Housing Scheme of the Muhammadu Buhari administration remained vacant for many years.

Investigations revealed that most of the houses’ roofs were removed by windstorms or vandals. The housing units located in the Three Star Residential area of Dutse comprised 48 units of two-bedroom semi-detached bungalows and 24 units of three-bedroom semi-detached bungalows.

Also, some water vendors were seen fetching water for sale at the site while a herd of cattle trespassed into the estate.

Commenting, Dahiru Sulaiman, a retiree, attributed the situation to the high house cost, making it difficult for interested buyers to access it.

“I don’t know the actual cost presently; even after the commissioning of the houses, civil servants were grumbling about the cost and the repayment plan,” he said.

While the houses in Bauchi and Dutse remained unoccupied, the case is different in Gombe State, with over 50 per cent of the houses being utilised.

Sunday Mark, chief resident architect of the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Gombe Field Office, said more than 50 per cent of the completed houses had been purchased and allocated to the owners.

Mr Mark said the government completed work on 194 houses under Phases 1, 2 & 3 of the project, adding that another 10 blocks of housing units were at the completion stage.

“The completed houses are still on sale; buyers have started getting allocations, and over 100 of the 194 houses have been bought,” he said, adding that work on another 250 housing units was ongoing under the Renewed Hope Estate initiative.

He said that the complaints about exorbitant prices by the buyers were behind the poor sale of the houses three years after completion.

“The price of the completed houses, for which a buyer is expected to pay the money in full, includes N9.288 million for one bedroom apartment. Others are two bedrooms for N12.398 million, while the three bedrooms bungalow is N16.491 million,” he said. 

(NAN)