Lagos rents push two-bedroom flats in Ikoyi to N17.25m a year as tenants move to Ogun
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Annual rents for two-bedroom apartments in Lagos have climbed to about N18 million in Victoria Island and N17.25 million in Ikoyi, pushing households towards cheaper communities in Ogun State, a housing analysis shows.
Annual rents for two-bedroom apartments in Lagos have reached levels that are pushing residents out of the city's central districts and into cheaper communities on its edges, according to a housing analysis reported by Legit.ng.
In Victoria Island, a two-bedroom flat now costs an average of N18 million a year. A similar property in Ikoyi fetches roughly N17.25 million, while rents in Lekki Phase 1 stand at about N10 million. Even on the Mainland, areas such as Yaba, Surulere and Ikeja command between N4.75 million and N5 million annually.
By contrast, the same type of property in Ikorodu costs an average of about N1.08 million a year, and in Badagry rents drop to roughly N480,000. The price gap reflects a broader housing shortage: Lagos has an estimated deficit of 3.4 million housing units, while about 51 percent of its more than 20 million residents rent their homes and only around 31 percent own property.
Some families are responding by relocating to areas such as Mowe, Ibafo and Sagamu in Ogun State, where land can be purchased and developed at a fraction of what years of rent in central Lagos would cost. Nkanu Egbe of Lagos Metropolitan described the movement as a flight to the “edge of the Lagos map”, where residents trade expensive rent for longer commutes.
Egbe cited the Oyedokun family, who live in Mowe but work in Lagos and begin their day around 3:30 a.m. to get ahead of traffic on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, with the Kara Bridge a major bottleneck. On a typical day they reach work by about 6 a.m. and may not return home until around 10 p.m., illustrating how savings on rent can be offset by fuel, transport and lost time.