Rullion's Blog

Skye Shelter Fund (SSF) half year profit rose by 6 percent as the Nigerian real estate operator continues to unrelentingly seek newer opportunities in a country hit by housing deficits. For the first six months of the year, the company’s revenue rose by 7 percent to N90.24 billion from N84.23 billion in the same period of the corresponding year HY 2013. Profit after tax PAT increased by 6 percent to N66.95 billion compared to N63.10 billion as at HY 2013. This improved performance coincided with a surge in the real estate and mutual fund industry.

The Lagos State Mortgage Board on Tuesday began allocation of homes to 30 indigenes that emerged winners from a raffle draw for the state housing estates. Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State said at the presentation that allocation of the homes to first set of beneficiaries had confirmed the state government’s commitment to the mortgage scheme. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that some of the homes were in Shitta, Ikorodu, Epe, Age and Lekki Housing Estates. The governor said the scheme was the state government’s answer to the limited access to housing and one of the strategies to improve living standards. “With this scheme, we are moving our people from desperation for housing to an orderly and predictable living. And, that is our dream and I have always believed that when people can dream things, their hands can do it. “Our journey really begins today; Lagosians should begin to put their steps in that ladder, the ladder to prosperity that we have d...

Esther Macully used all of her 1.52m frame to face down a bulldozer and save her freezer from being destroyed, as a wrecking crew guarded by armed security forces razed her home in Badia East slum of Lagos. While she salvaged the cooler, she is still waiting for the Lagos State government to fulfill a pledge to help replace the home she used as a store to sell beverages and food. A general view of houses built in Makoko slums in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, October 10th, 2009 The wooden shack was flattened last February, along with the dwellings of thousands of others that authorities said were moved for a housing project that is yet to get off the ground. “We can’t be living in this kind of condition forever”, Macully said as she prepared to move back home about 160km east of Lagos. “We’re citizens of Nigeria. Let them have mercy on us.” The demolition is making way for more than 1,000 one-to two-bedroom apartments that will be beyond the means of Nigerians like Macully. La...

Citing his government’s desire to encourage low income Lagos residents to own homes without much stress, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola on Monday flagged off the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (LagosHOMS). Mr. Fashola said LagosHOMS is part of his administration's solution towards reducing the acute housing deficit in Lagos State. According to Fashola, "the economic realities had made house ownership almost impossible for most income earners". He went further to say, "for many years, our people have had to acquire houses, often times being required to pay cash once and for all, as if they were buying a shirt or a pair of shoes in a shop. This approach in part, explains why a large number of ordinary middle class and working people, cannot afford to acquire homes on the basis of their legitimate income derived from hard work. In Lagos, we are of the view that a home is not something you buy in one day, but over time in a way that your...