Bothered by the outrageous rents in Ekiti State, Governor Biodun Oyebanji has begun moves to correct the trend through regulating the real estate sector in the state.
This came to the fore in Ado Ekiti on Friday during a meeting of the state government with players in the real estate sector under the aegis of Estate Rent and Commission Agents of Nigeria (ERCAN), Ekiti State Chapter.
The Special Adviser to the Governor, Ekiti State Bureau of Housing and Mortgage Development, Dr Gboyega Oloniyo, who expressed the governor’s dissatisfaction with the outrageous rents obtainable in the state and the attendant effect on residents, said the government would not allow the trend to continue.
Oloniyo told ERCAN members that the meeting was part of efforts to aggregate suggestions for the forthcoming laws to regulate rent and the real estate sector in the state.
The SA said, “This administration has a mantra and a mission of shared prosperity. The governor is interested in making sure that when it comes to the real sector, that we should moderate and have regulation that will make life easy for the citizenry of Ekiti State.
“The governor wants to ensure that houses are not only available, they should be accessible and affordable for the people. In a situation whereby you have some houses that are not available for the people, I think the government has to step in, that is why we are here, to set in motion the process of regulating this real sector”.
Oloniyo assured the ERCAN members that their complaints on the issue of quack agents and shylock landlords would be addressed by the regulation, saying, “We will not relent on the issue of bad eggs. Flushing them out is responsibility.
“By the time the laws and regulations are in place, they will solve the issue of landlords that you had raised. The laws that will be put in place soon will right the wrongs. The laws are coming.
He assured that construction would soon begin on the houses that the Federal Government through the Federal Housing Authority and the Federal Ministry of Housing wants to provide for Ekiti State under the Renewed Hope Agenda, saying that would address ERCAN’s demand for more houses.
Oloniyo said, “Governor Oyebanji has made hectares of land available to the FHA and the Federal Ministry of Works for them to build the houses under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu. Work will soon begin on these housing projects in Ekiti very soon. These are part of the foundations we are making.
The Director General, Office of Community Communication, Governor’s Office, Mrs Mary Oso-Omotoso, said there was need to urgently address, through regulation, the cut-throat rent in the state which report has put at highest in the Southwest Region.
Oso-Omotoso said that report reaching the state government was that civil servants and people working genuinely to earn their living could not afford to rent houses since the estate agents prefer internet fraudsters popularly known as Yahoo Yahoo Boys who could pay any amount.
The DG said, “If estate agents are patronizing the Yahoo Yahoo boys, what happens to the teachers, what happens to the civil servants, what happens to the small business owners and the petty traders? They deserve to live well, they deserve to live in befitting houses in the state where they work.
“We need to make Ekiti a place where people can work and live in. We are having conversations with the key players in the sector. By the time we come up with regulations, we will help them to flush out quacks, then there will be relief among residents of Ekiti State,” she said.
ERCAN State Chairman, Prince Olabode Ayeoba, who said the government step was a welcome development, said the issue of shylock landlords, who come up with high rents and quacks, who are making lives difficult for tenants and aspiring tenants should be urgently addressed by government.
Ayeoba, who said collaboration of the state government would go a long way to address the issues in the sector, said government should consider coming up with low-cost housing units to serve accommodation needs and as well compel landlords to bring down the high rents”.
The ERCAN chair also urged the government to organize workshops, training and retraining programmes for his members to expose them further on the job.