Citizens decry arbitrary increase in house rents, seek urgent govt. intervention
CHIGOZIE AMADI
Nigerians have raised the alarm over what they describe as incessant and arbitrary increase in rents by landlords and their agents across the country.
A cross section of the citizens, who spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from across the country, said the skyrocketing rent was making life unbearable for them.
Consequently, they have urged federal and state governments to, as a matter of urgency, intervene in what they called the situation in virtually all the states of the federation, which they described as unfortunate.
The respondents particularly called for implementation of extant rent laws by state governments to rescue tenants from those they called shylock landlords and their agents.
They also stressed the need for governments at all levels to build affordable homes for low income earners and put a benchmark on rents in order to help the tenants.
NAN checks showed that house rents had shot up by about 150 per cent in the last two years in Bauchi, Dutse and Gombe, thus forcing many residents to move out of town to enable them to get affordable accommodation.
In Kano State, some of the residents, who spoke with NAN, said that paying rent in the capital city had now become very hard, as landlords increased rents at will.
A survey conducted by NAN in different areas within Kano metropolis showed that some landlords had increased rents on their properties.
For instance, in highbrow areas like Nasarawa GRA, Bompai and Badawa layout, a two-bedroom flat and a three-bedroom apartment have risen from N600,000 and N700,000 to N800,000 N1 million, respectively.
The rent for a duplex of four rooms and above presently stand at between N1.5 million and N3 million per annum, depending on the landlord.
The Vice Chairman, Kano Property Agent Development Association (KAPADA), Sabiu Ado, attributed the increase to the high cost of building materials, which he said had tripled, thereby forcing landlords to increase rents.
According to him, it requires more than N10 million to build a bungalow with good finishing, saying that this affects how much they rent out such buildings.
“The cost drivers such as land, rods, cements, roofs, paint, louvers, woods and others determine the cost and rent of a building,” Ado said.
A landlord, Musa Sani, also said that the increment had become necessary to enable them have value for their investments.
Malam Abba Yusuf, a federal worker transferred from Kaduna to Katsina, said it was unfortunate that most of the landlords or caretakers did not have respect for their tenants.
According to him, about a year ago, his landlord sent him out of the house, because he rejected rent increase, which he said, doubled what he used to pay.
He, therefore, urged government to, as a matter of urgency, address the way and manner house owners behave to their tenants, in spite of the existing rent laws.
A landlord, Malam Sanusi Charanchi, said he had no other choice than to increase house rent because of the current economic hardship.
Charanchi said as a retired civil servant, he only relied on the incomes from his houses, stating: “every day you go to the market, the prices of foodstuffs keep going up.
“Therefore, as my only source of income, I also have to increase the rent to meet up with the gap created by the economic situation in the country,” he said.
Mr Joe Yaji, a tenant in Jalingo, told NAN that his landlord just woke up one day and increased house rent from N200,000 to N300,000, citing high cost of living in the country.
Yaji appealed to Taraba government to come up with laws that would protect tenants from arbitrary increases in house rent by the landlords, saying that the cost of living was negatively affecting everyone, including tenants.
