CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Lagos State can be described as the Nigeria’s commercial capital, is the country’s most active and most expensive rental market where tenants at its highbrow areas pay expensively for residential apartment while similar apartments in the low-mid income areas go for amount. Apart from high demand and low supply, there are other factors responsible for this high rent and, according to Akinlade (2014), the Lagos Tenancy Law and multiple taxation are driving up house rents in Lagos. Recognizing that Lagos is home to over 21 million people, with housing posing a major challenge to the huge population, the state government in August 2011 enacted the Tenancy Law which prescribes one year rent for a new tenant and six months for a sitting tenant.
Akinlade (2014) explained that the single year rent payment law has discouraged investment in homes for rent and has pushed rent to new level, adding that, presently, landlords collect two years’ rent for one year in many locations in Lagos.He explained further that developers, through multiple taxation, were made to pay for land, planning and approval, environment, council and taxes.Access to land through government allocation is a battleground for money bags in Lagos. Planning approval takes forever, yet the government says it will take one to two months.
The Federal Government’s housing policies has not contributed enough for developers in that access to credit from banks was near-impossible for developers and developers that are lucky to receive loan offers must find over 150 percent security for the bank to hold; 25 percent interest rate on bank loans which is a killer for any developer’s business plan (Collins, 2003).
Other reasons for the high rent to include sale of Federal Government’s land in Lagos, high exchange rate to import building material, highly priced local building material, high fuel costs showing itself through transportation costs and generators, highlabour costs, and inadequate design to maximize land space.
Lagos has seen 30 years of mass housing gap, because since after Lateef Jakande governed Lagos from 1979 to 1983, there has been no mass housing for rent.Jakande was the last governor of the state that successfully implemented and delivered mass housing policies for rent. For 30 years, successive governments ignored this need of Lagos residents. Jakande also commissioned a report on homes shortage in Nigeria, as at 2010, estimated at 16 million and projected to reach 20 million by 2020.
According to Affe (2008), it is fair to the citizens that government discharge its responsibilities to the people and give meaningful life to the citizens. This underscores the point why Land Use Charge was introduced by Lagos State Government to raise revenue for maintaining existing infrastructure and provide new ones. It is in line with this that the researcher is examining the effect of tenancy law and multiple taxation of residential house rent in Lagos State.
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