Port Harcourt Rents Soar as Housing Demand Outstrips Supply
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House rents in Port Harcourt's highbrow areas have more than doubled in two years as oil-sector demand, a growing population and flooding push prices up and force low-income earners to the city's outskirts.
House rents in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and commercial hub of the South-South, have climbed sharply as oil firms, expatriates and a growing population compete for a limited stock of decent homes, Daily Trust reports.
A two-bedroom flat in highbrow areas such as GRA and Peter Odili Road now costs between N1.5 million and N3 million a year, up from less than N800,000 two years ago. Workers in oil firms and expatriates seeking secure, serviced accommodation can pay as much as N10 million a year for a duplex, while civil servants and other low-income earners are being pushed to the outskirts, including Obigbo, Elelenwo, Choba and Ahoada, where rents are more affordable.
Landlords and property agents blame rising building-material costs and demand from dollar-earning tenants, but the report notes that the city's population now exceeds its housing supply. Recent flooding in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpo local government areas has compounded the crisis, with landlords in areas left unaffected raising rents further. Tenants have urged the state government to act.
Rivers State is investing in affordable housing. In December, Governor Siminalayi Fubara inaugurated the first 1,000 of a planned 20,000 low-income housing units in Port Harcourt, delivered under a public-private partnership by TAF Africa Global Limited and Greater TAF Nigeria Limited. The company's managing director, Mustapha Njie, said 1,000 homes were already completed, and Fubara said detractors had filed more than 90 court suits in a bid to stall the project.
Private developers remain the dominant players in the state's housing sector, leaving low- and middle-income residents exposed to a market where rents are rising faster than incomes.