₦airaland Forum

Royalfurnitures:
Vacant houses? In a country where many are homeless. Instead of taxing them why not give it out to homeless citizens?

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Gracealone:
The bad shape of the economy will make some buildings to remain vacant.

A lot of middle class families are presently moving from Island towards mainland just to manage their finances and so many businesses that folded up had to vacate their premises.

tiwiex:
She is talking about income inequality here. A situation where we have billionaires who can never spend all the money and many people with nothing. Capital has its flaws and has been abused. Many rich Nigerians are not even doing serious innovative business. Just rent seeking and government privileges. So the use this money and keep building houses to launder the money.

What she suggested is a simple economic policy to shift incentive from launderees who want tho hide money. If implemented, housing prices will start to drop as no one wants to service an empty house. Many unintended positive effect to the poor.

Short sighted? How?

ULSHERLAN:
If you come to VI, there are loads of vacant houses because the prices are high. If this tax is imposed, I'm sure vacant house owners will rather want to put someone in the house paying something rather than leaving the house and still paying tax on it. Wise move if our FG can implement.

Funkybabee:
It's you that suppose to use that common sense..

tell me at that point who will be too desperate between house owner and tenants

FarahAideed:
Tinubu will not like this ..but on a serious note this woman is very short sighted , why punish home owners for housing Deficit they did not cause?

pacespot:
You are more short sighted than your above myopic write up. Don't you see where she mentioned economic inequality as the reason for this. How come that about 70% houses in urban informal settlement don't have the basic amenities as simple as a running water and there are many vacant houses in gigantic real estate springing up everyday. Go to maitama and other big estates in abuja, even here in Lagos, you will see that most houses there are vacant, yet there are informal settlements in the vicinity of these areas with human degrading conditions.

FarahAideed:
Tinubu will not like this ..but on a serious note this woman is very short sighted , why punish home owners for housing Deficit they did not cause?

FarahAideed:
Shut up I am a capitalist to the core , I have a house in my state I built my home state that's empty most of the year and if you expect me to be punished for being more visionary and hard-working I will not agree to that .. This woman is a socialist at heart trying to punish hard-working people for the laziness of others . If the govt wants to fight corruption they should fight it from the source in govt offices and not this blanket appraoch that is bound to affect innocent people like me who has never stolen a dime .it's wrong to punish me because of a homeless man who used all his youth to drink shekpe and watch football matches

pacespot:
Occupy the house with some of your relatives Mr man, or are you so stingy. However, since the house is in your village, you are less likely to be affected by this tax. I think this is a vacant home tax in the urban cities.

Apeshy101:
Ms Leilana Fartha, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Adequate Housing, on Monday urged the Federal Government to impose vacant home tax with a view to addressing housing challenges in the country.

Fartha at a news conference in Abuja, expressed concern over human rights crisis presented by poor living conditions in Nigeria’s informal settlements.

According to her, the informal settlements house about 69 per cent of the urban population.

She said: “Most residents in Nigeria’s ballooning informal settlements live without access to even the most basic services, like running water.

“And they lack any security of tenure, forcing them to live in constant fear of being evicted.

“My 10 days fact findings visit to Nigeria has presented an economic inequality in the country, which has reached extreme level and is playing itself out clearly in the housing sector.

“There is an estimated housing shortage of 22 million units.


“At the same time, newly built luxury dwellings are springing up throughout cities and made possible often through the forced eviction of poor communities.

“These units do not fulfill any housing need, with many remaining vacant as vehicles for money laundering or investment,’’ she said.

While urging the Federal Government to take urgent measures to address homelessness and poverty, Fartha advocated for a declaration of a nation-wide moratorium on forced evictions.

“Government must address the grossly inadequate housing conditions with the urgency and rigour befitting a human rights crisis of this scale.

“Apart from establishing a national commission to investigate gross human rights violations in the context of forced evictions, government should provide basic services to all informal settlements.

“And must increase the number of shelters for persons in situations of vulnerability,’’ Fartha said.

She further expressed worry that the Bill for an Act to provide rent control failed in the National Assembly.

According to her, when the bill for rent control first hit the National Assembly, it wasn’t ripe

“It is unfortunate that the bill died in NASS.

“The idea of controlling rent caps is hotly debated in many countries.

“New York just tried to have rent control laws passed; Barcelona is close to getting rent free as rent is actually frozen for some period of five to seven years.

“So, in many jurisdictions, they have started to impose vacant home tax.

“I support that kind of move from human rights point of view only where that money from the tax is directly put into the creation of affordable housing.

“In the case of Nigeria it could be used as fund to upgrade informal settlements.

“I don’t like a tax and you never see where the tax is going.

“There are other measures that can be explored, there are situations that homes are misappropriated given that the government has all the lands in trust,’’ she stressed

News9naija reports that Fartha will present a comprehensive report of her visit to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2020.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/09/un-special-rapporteur-urges-nigeria-to-impose-vacant-home-tax/amp/

madenigga:
The idea is not impletantable.

I know an estate in Rivers state that is totally empty, why because of security.

The place developed then at a point everybody moved out of the neighborhood, because if they don't rob you in your house, they would ambush you on the road and kidnap u, so you are saying these people who fled there house for there safety should start paying taxes for running for there own safety?

If the government did what they were supposed to do would they run?

All these people abroad just because they have stayed there for long they think the politicians they see abroad spending money and the citizen's are the same, hunger dae for Nigeria seriously o, no dae use oyibo standards dae measure our own o, we are still very backward

Pharovo:
This kinda bill is dead on arrival cos the people who are suppose to put it to play are the ones that owns the vacant houses not me or you that’s struggling to build one

SouthSouth1914:
It is you that lack common sense! 90% of vacant houses are already put up for rent! Because of the bad economy, people can’t afford it!

Taxing or not doesn’t change the focal point- Bad economy.. Raise the economic viability of the country, then you can see the shortfalls and you can TAX!!

Nigeria's housing 'the worst in the world

Chris Ewokor

BBC Africa, Abuja


About 70% of Nigeria's population lives in poor settlements which lack basic amenitiesImage caption:


Nigeria is facing a housing crisis, with conditions among the worst in the world, the UN has warned.

More than two-thirds of Nigerians are living in poor settlements with a lack of basic amenities, the UN's housing rapporteur, Leilani Farha, said.

She is quoted by the Reuters news agency as telling journalists in the capital, Abuja, at the end of her 10-day visit to investigate the housing situation in the country's cities:

Quote Message: Nigeria's housing sector is in a complete crisis. Existing programmes will hardly make even a small dent in addressing the ever-growing housing need.

Quote Message: I[i]nformal settlements are ballooning where conditions are inhumane and perhaps the most severe I have seen worldwide."
Informal settlements are ballooning where conditions are inhumane and perhaps the most severe I have seen worldwide."[/i]

She said some settlements lacked access to potable water, toilets and rubbish disposal – and many were exposed to the health problems because of the dangers of stagnant water where bacteria breeds.

The population of Nigeria - already the biggest in Africa - is expected to double to four hundred million by the middle of the century.

The West African nation already lacks more than 22 million houses for its citizens.

An insurgency in the north-east has forced two million people from their homes, causing further strain.

Ms Farha warned that corrupt money flowing into the housing sector had led to a boom in the building of luxury homes, beyond the reach of the vast majority of Nigerians.

She also criticised poor housing policies and the use of force by states and developers to evict communities, which mainly affected women and children.

The UN rapporteur is quoted as saying in her preliminary recommendations:

Quote Message: A national-level moratorium on forced evictions should be declared by the federal government until adequate legal and procedural safeguards are in place to ensure that all evictions are compliant with international human rights law."
A national-level moratorium on forced evictions should be declared by the federal government until adequate legal and procedural safeguards are in place to ensure that all evictions are compliant with international human rights law."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-47639452?

capitalzero:
I like your reasoning. Even hospital bills should be capped for services rendered. We need to bridge gap between rich and poor. it is only in Nigeria that people see basic social services as 'class' thing. If bills/fees for social services like housing, education and health are capped, there will be redistribution of wealth. That is principe of socialist democracy and liberal economy.