The Federal Government will today lay the groundwork for the construction of 3,112 housing units in the Karsana area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under the first phase of the 20,000-unit Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme.
The ground-breaking exercise to be conducted by President Bola Tinubu marks the official launch of the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme, initiated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to bridge the housing deficit and increase the housing stock in the country.
The government approved N100 billion for the ministry in the 2023 Supplementary budget and N18.9billion in the 2024 budget for the implementation of the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates, as well as urban and slum upgrading programmes.
The Renewed Hope Cities and Estates project also made the list of the President’s Top 10 projects for 2024, spurring widespread optimism about his commitment to the project.
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The cities will have a minimum of 1,000 housing units in each of the six geo-political zones of the country and the FCT, while the estates will have a minimum of 500 housing units per site in the remaining 30 states.
The Public Private Partnership (PPP) project at Karsana is being funded by the developers, who also sourced the land, while the ministry creates the enabling environment and facilitates access by off-takers for the houses from subscribers to the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme managed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), an agency under the ministry.
The project is the first in a series that the ministry will be embarking on in the coming weeks. Others are the 2,500 Renewed Hope City housing units at the Ibeju-Lekki Coastal City, Lagos, 500-housing unit Renewed Hope Estate in Kano and 250 housing units in 12 states, two in each geopolitical zone (Ogun, Oyo, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Abia, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Benue, Yobe, Gombe, Katsina and Sokoto).
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At the core of the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme is the cross-subsidy component where 80 per cent of the housing units developed will be sold at commercial rate, while 20 per cent will be sold at concessionary rates to low- and medium-income Nigerians, who are members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC). The idea is to deploy profits made from the commercial units as a subsidy for the units reserved for low- and medium-income earners.
The cities and estates will be designed as integrated living communities targeting all income brackets, and comprising one-bedroom blocks of flats, two-bedroom blocks of flats and three-bedroom blocks of flats targeting low- andmedium-income earners; two-bedroom terraces, four-bedroom terraces, four-bedroom duplexes and five-bedroom duplexes targeting high-income earners.
Also notable are the numerous ownership options available to Nigerians aimed at enhancing the affordability of the houses. These include single-digit30-year mortgage loans to be provided by FMBN, Rent-to-Own options where beneficiaries can move in and pay towards homeownership in monthly, quarterly or yearly instalments and Outright Purchases for high-income earners.
Source: Guardian NG
