Diya Fatimilehin Urges Govt to Subsidise Mortgage for Robust Real Estate Sector

Bennett Oghifo

The federal government has been urged to subsidise the mortgage regime to make housing delivery sustainable.

The Founding Partner of Diya Fatimilehin & Co, Gboyega Fatimilehin gave this advice in an interview with journalists after a Prayer Breakfast the firm held in Lagos to mark its 40 years’ anniversary recently.

Fatimilehin said in the next decade he expects a brighter future for the nation’s real estate sector and that his firm would contribute much more to the property market and “see how best we can assist the country to achieve that height, scaling up real estate and scaling up the GDP of the country.

“In most developed countries, real estate accounts for 60 percent to 70 percent of their GDP, but in Nigeria it is still .8 percent,” stating that it would be interesting to scale it up to 40 percent in the next 10 years.

He said the loan ceiling of N15 million being given by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) is an attempt to subsidise housing production but that it would be more productive for the government to subsidise mortgage.

According to him, the government puts a loan limit “because they want to subsidise production (housing), but does that limit bring satisfaction to the borrower. Why don’t we subsidise the mortgage so that I can buy what I want?

“There are a number of houses without occupants because they are not what people want.”

Head of Practice, Diya, Fatimilehin & Co, Idowu Bakare, said the government should institute a workable mortgage system that is sustainable, stating that mortgage ought to last 30 years or more.