Babatunde Fashola
Landlords in Nigeria should start collecting rents in arrears beginning from July 6, 2018, says Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.
In Nigeria, lessors collect rents in advance.
Fashola, who said he never liked this practice, argued on Thursday that those who own property in the country should consider that many Nigerians are low-income earners.
The former governor of Lagos appealed to house owners to consider salary earners, who could afford to pay rents, but receiving their salaries in arrears.
Speaking on the theme ”Innovative housing finance model as a catalyst for home ownership,” at an event for real estate operators in Abuja, Fashola recommended that there should be a landlord-tet-employer’s relation.
He said the two parties should reach an agreement with the tet’s employer to ensure the rent is deducted on a monthly basis from the tet’s salary.
”If you ask me to go and bring in advance one year’s rent from what I’m going to earn monthly in arrears, how feasible is that?” he asked.
”Even my salary as a minister is paid at the end of every month, not even at the beginning; then you the landlord is now asking me to bring next year’s salary, and we’re complaining that there’s corruption.
“I tried to intervene as a governor, passing the resolution to our own council in Lagos then, but the outcome was not peaceful, because there were landlords in our midst.”
Arguing further, Fashola stated that all the developed economies Nigeria was being compared to were not collecting one year’s rent in advance.
”Those who get paid weekly, pay their rents weekly; those who get paid monthly, pay monthly rents,” the minister added.