A cross section of Abuja residents especially civil servants have expressed concerns over-bloated rent hike by landlords, appealing to government to look into their plights.
Some of the residents bared their minds in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.
Emmanuel Ijeh, a civil servant residing in Lokogoma area of Abuja lamented that some landlords review their house rents by more than 75 per cent every two years regardless of the harrowing implication to their tenants.
“In the past four years, my landlord had reviewed our rent two times, a room and parlour apartment which I hitherto paid N350, 000 now goes for N1.5 million, yet our salary still remains the same within the period.
Ijeh said government should come up with legislation to regulate the housing sector with a view to tackling the incessant hike in rent as well as upward review of salaries of workers.
He said that some shylock-minded landlords are seriously causing pressure on families, adding that salaries of workers have been stagnant with inflation on a steady rise.
Ijeh noted that while most residents had been forced to relocate to satellite towns such as Kubwa, Gwagwalada and Mararaba, from the city centre, the situation remained unabated as rent in those areas equally went high.
He suggested to government to review its housing policy with a view to providing accommodation to civil servants, while the legislature should come up with laws regulating rent and the entire housing sector.
“Labour unions and residents argue that the “monetization policy’’ of the early 2000s, which replaced government housing has failed as many civil servants now face harrowing experience in accommodation.
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“The current housing policy is a joke, because giving 25 per cent of retirement savings as housing mortgage is neither here nor there, because the so-called money cannot make a worker to own his/her house,’’ he said.
He urged Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, to resume provision of office residential accommodations to workers to reduce their sufferings.
Mr. Johnson Isah, a trader at Wuse Market said that business owners in Abuja are the worst hit regarding housing issues, noting that both residential and shops are hired at cut-throat rate.
He called on government to intervene to reduce the stress residents are exposed to over rent.
Isha equally suggested to government to come up with a better housing policy that would benefit both workers and those in the private sectors.
“In most advanced countries, provision of housing by government benefits both workers and non-government workers, Nigeria should emulate such policy to addressing the housing needs of the masses,’’ he said.
NAN
