FG to take stock of unoccupied estates in FCT, other states

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

The federal government said it would take stock of all unoccupied, abandoned estates in the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) and other states of the country.
The Minister of Housing and Urban Development( FMHUD)
Arc. Ahmed Dangiwa made the disclosure during an interview with journalists at the continuation of sites visit and assessments of housing projects constructed by the federal government and agencies under FMHUD at the weekend in Abuja.
Dangiwa explained that, “There are alot of abandoned and unoccupied estates especially in FCT, and in some other states. What is important is that we want to take stock of all those abandoned houses, then we will interface with the owners of those abandoned houses and discuss with the owners what exactly they want to do with them.
“ Do the owners or proprietors
of those property want to keep them, if they want to keep the unoccupied houses, then the government will start charging them triple ground rent instead of the single ground rent that the government usually charged”, he said.
According to the minister, “This will force the owners to put those property on rent on whatever amount or sell them off”.
He stressed that, “we can’t continue to keep saying we have housing deficit while we have alot of empty house that are being completed and left unoccupied. “ We have already informed the department of lands and urban and regional planing of our ministry to take stock of those estates to give us the name of the proprietors or the owners of those estates, any estate that stays for more than 3 months unoccupied, we will start charging them a triple ground rent. This is what we intend to do”, Dangiwa noted.
Similarly, the minister inspected Prototype Housing Scheme in Suleja , Niger state which comprises of 232 units with 185 completed and National Housing Project, Gwagwalada in the FCT which has a total number of 216 units and the Federal Integrated Housing Scheme also in Gwagwalada has 100 housing units.
Also, Apo-Guzape Housing Project, inside FCT, has 100 hecters of land with
Three Project Models: Direct Construction Financed by FHA, Public-Private Partnership with 764 houses completed.
Meanwhile, speaking on the overall assessment of the housing projects, the minister said he was impressed by what he had seen , saying that each of the locations had their own peculiarities and issues.