At a public event recently, Nigeria's Honorable Minister for Works and Housing and former Lagos Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola proposed monthly rent by property owners in order to make housing affordable for Nigerian urban dwellers. He said this in reaction to reports about housing deficit in the country being about 17 Million, insisting that the claim had no scientific backing.

Exorbitant amounts of rent, ranging from one to three years demanded by landlords and property owners before they let out their properties is the major cause of housing challenges in Nigeria, the Minister said.

This development has then cast some doubts in the minds of property investors in companies like Gtext Homes over the expected returns on their rental income investments in estates like Jasper Gardenia, both in Lagos and Abuja. These investors had, owing to the potential property appreciation in Jasper Lagos and Abuja as a result of presence of infrastructure like the Dangote Refinery, Lekki Golf course to mention but a few, had bought into the off-plan sales of the estates with the hope of leasing such lands out in return for high rental income.

The Company, aware of this unfounded fear has risen to the occasion to allay its investors fears and assured them that the proposal will not see the light of the day, as it was not realistic and practicable. Speaking through its company legal secretary, Mrs Joy Chukwumah, the company reminded its investors and indeed the general public that the control of rent as proposed by Fashola and indeed the many before it, was anachronistic and dead on arrival, saying that the various rent control regimes in the country had never worked.

Reference: https://africahousingnews.com/2021/08/09/stakeholders-to-fashola-rent-control-not-practicable-outdated/

They should work it out and come to a reasonable win-win compromise.