Beginning from March 4 this year, 200 families who will apply for the scheme and succeed, will get their own homes under the scheme which offers 10 years of loan repayment tenor and 9.5 percent interest rate, making it truly a mortgage scheme that reflects global best practices.
At the flag-off ceremony that was well attended by housing industry stakeholders, Babatunde Fashola, the state governor, stressed that after three years of debates and disagreements, government has resolved that the scheme is for first time home owners.
This offering to private developers by the state is to complement what the government itself is building with the aim of gradually reducing the huge housing deficit in Lagos.
Apparently on the understanding that a mortgage scheme would be meaningless without housing stock on which mortgage could be created, the governor disclosed that presently, the state government has completed 1,104 housing units with 3,156 others at various stages of completion, all dedicated to the mortgage scheme.
“Today, as we flag off this scheme, there are 1,104 completed homes, while another 3,156 units are at various stages of construction, and we intend to start more. We are starting 132 units in Iponri, 720 units in Ibeshe Ikorodu, 420 units in Ajara Badagry, 648 units in Sangotedo Phase II, 216 units in Obele, 36 units in Akerele Phase II, 48 units in Oyingbo, 125 units in Ilubirin and 1080 units in Ijora. These projects are funded from the taxes that our people have paid as the monthly internally generated revenue,” Fashola said.
These housing units which are in different parts of the state are to be sold to residents of the state on 10-year mortgage scheme with maximum interest rate of 9.5 percent per annum, as against 11 to 24 percent being offered by private developers across the country.
The project is solely funded with internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state from taxes paid by the public.
Prices of the Lagos HOMS housing units which are posted on its website—www.lagoshoms.gov.ng— range from N4.3 million for a one-bedroom flat in Epe to N32.5 million for a three-bedroom flat in Gbagada.
To qualify for these houses which consist of one, two and three-bedroom flats, an applicant must be resident in Lagos, show evidence of registration with the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA), show evidence of consistent tax payment, must not have owned a property or benefitted from any previous government housing, and must live in the home allocated to him/her under the scheme.
Applications for the homes are to be accessed and processed online from its website.
Governor Fashola who inaugurated a five man Lagos State Mortgage Board, a body now saddled with the responsibility of managing all property under the Lagos HOMS, said already, 1,104 housing units are ready and the draw to pick winners for the first set of 200 houses will be held on March 4, 2014.
He said after experimenting with a few designs of bungalows, room and parlour and blocks of flats, “we settled on two designs: A block of four floors, containing 12 flats of one, two, and three bedroom on each floor and a block of 12 flats of two units of two bedroom flats; and one unit of a three bedroom flat. In each case, each block will have 12 flats and in this way we can optimise the use of our limited space,” Fashola said
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