A Group Cooperative Housing Summit Africa, has advocated the adoption of Public-Private-People Partnerships (4Ps) in the built environment to guarantee large-scale and effective delivery of affordable housing across the country.
Speaking ahead of the summit in Abuja, the Convener, Dr Yemi Adelakun, said the initiative is strategically designed to promote affordable housing delivery for low- and medium-income earners through self-help and collaborative cooperative housing principles.
Adelakun explained that cooperative housing provides members’ access to affordable housing finance, improves buyers’ bargaining power with stakeholders, encourages group savings and builds social capital.
According to him, the model also enables members to enjoy group discounts from developers and building materials manufacturers, while attracting equity and impact investors into the sector.
He disclosed that the group’s national survey revealed critical data for planning purposes, including the low level of effective demand for housing compared to actual housing needs and deficit, as well as the disparity between housing wants, needs and affordability within the industry.
“We discovered that the low level of mortgage eligibility is largely due to income levels and high interest rates that are not conducive to long-term housing finance. There is a need for self-help and collaboration among end-users. We have also identified the housing types, sizes, locations and price ranges currently in demand,” he said.
According to him, the impediments to affordable housing are multidimensional, particularly on the supply side, where the cost of housing construction continues to rise while access to titled land remains difficult.
He added that the profit-driven orientation of many private developers has limited their participation in the affordable housing segment. “Government should continue to encourage and incentivise private sector involvement through land equity partnerships and tax breaks,” Adelakun stated.
On the demand side, he noted that challenges include limited access to housing finance and the weak bargaining power of unorganised buyers and renters.
He explained that affordable housing can only be achieved through deliberate national and sub-national policies, land and financial incentives, as well as effective 4Ps.
He, however, lamented that despite its huge potential, the sector is still operating below capacity. Adelakun said the summit is aimed at promoting the housing cooperative movement across the federation and advancing the digitalisation of housing finance for capital aggregation and improved financial inclusion of individuals currently excluded from the mortgage system.
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