Soaring property prices and construction costs shut millions of Nigerians out of homeownership

Soaring property prices, escalating rents and rising construction costs are deepening Nigeria's housing affordability crisis, shutting millions of households out of homeownership as incomes struggle to keep pace with the cost of shelter. Real estate developers, estate surveyors and investment professionals attribute the crisis to a combination of expensive land, construction materials, labour, infrastructure, financing, statutory charges, inadequate housing supply and weak purchasing power.

The President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Oba Akintoye Adeoye, said the continuous increase in residential property prices and rents had become a major concern for developers, prospective homeowners, tenants and investors. He said housing costs were rising faster than the purchasing power of many Nigerians, and that the problem could not be solved by focusing only on the final price charged by developers: the entire housing value chain, from land acquisition and construction to infrastructure, finance, transportation, professional services, statutory charges and regulatory costs, must be examined.

REDAN said developers operating in an increasingly expensive construction environment could not indefinitely absorb rising production costs without threatening the sustainability of their projects, but cautioned that rising development costs should not be used to justify arbitrary pricing or exploitation of consumers. Adeoye called for greater access to long-term, affordable mortgage finance so Nigerians can spread the cost of homeownership over 15, 20 or 30 years, alongside rent-to-own arrangements, cooperative housing schemes and housing savings programmes.

Federal data illustrates the scale of the challenge. A National Housing Data Technical Committee report released in January 2026 put Nigeria's 2025 housing deficit at 14.925 million units, while government data released in December 2025 indicated that about 15.2 million housing units were structurally inadequate. Chief M.I. Okoro, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, said soaring property values, high rents and expensive land were putting homeownership beyond the reach of ordinary Nigerians, with population growth and migration into urban centres driving demand for a fixed supply of development land, and pointed to prime Lagos locations such as Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki Phase One where developers are building vertically.

Okoro described a displacement factor in which rising values and rents in prime districts push residents towards Mushin, Shomolu, Ajegunle, Ajah, Epe, Igando and Agbara, and questioned why Nigeria's 774 local governments had not developed council housing schemes, arguing that social housing is not meant to be profit-driven. He also cited land administration and documentation as major cost contributors, including difficulties obtaining and perfecting certificates of occupancy.

The Ministry of Finance Incorporated Real Estate Investment Fund said in June 2026 that it had delivered N128 billion in mortgages to 1,859 families across 25 states at a fixed interest rate of 9.75%, with tenures of up to 20 years and a minimum 10% equity contribution; by August 2026, the State House said disbursements had risen to N140 billion, creating 2,018 mortgages across 27 states. Ayo Ibaru, Chief Investment Officer of housing developer Panterra, said construction-cost inflation, weak household purchasing power and market opacity that raises transaction risk have combined to widen the affordability gap, and called for stronger developer accreditation, clearer disclosure for off-plan schemes, escrow arrangements and faster land registration.