The Incident Of Low Occupancy Rate For Residential Properties In Nigeria. A Case Study Of Abuja-Nigeria Federal Capital Territory

One of the most important housing challenges in Nigeria and particularly Abuja, is not the availability of housing but the inability of citizens to afford the rent of the existing stock, especially in the Federal Capital City. The extremely high cost of rent and service charges culminates into a low occupancy rate for finished residential properties. Property owners create an artificial scarcity by continually increasing rent on empty completed properties and on property developments not principally investment-driven. This study x-rayed the causes of voids and the solution whereby government can impose taxes on unoccupied residential properties by enacting relevant legislation to check this trend. A simple questionnaire was designed to elicit answers from estate surveyors, agents, lawyers, estate developers, property owners, and prospective tenants. The use of bar and pie-charts were adopted to interpret the responses and inferences drawn. The city was zoned into four major parts to make it easier for this study, because part of the challenge was the large size of the city and the impossibility to cover all the streets. It was discovered that the majority of the residential properties developed, were not with financial assistance from financial institutions. They were purely private equities of politicians and businessmen who only want to consolidate their assets in physical structures but not for profit. The implication of this is the mass exodus of civil servants to seek accommodation outside the Federal Capital City where rent is cheap. This denies government of valuable manhours as a result of lateness to work due to the distance away from the office. The solution proffered, if followed, will help to alleviate the present situation of housing scarcity in the Federal Capital City.