Residents across major cities in northern Nigeria are currently raising concern over the high cost of rent in the region.

The high cost of building materials and inflation have driven rents to all-time high in the country.

Residents in Katsina, Maiduguri, Kano and Kaduna who spoke to Daily Trust expressed concerns over rising rents amidst low income.

Kaduna

Speaking to Daily Trust, Bello Idris Dalleje, a resident of Sabon Gari New Extension, lamented the high cost of rent, saying that “Currently, a two-room apartment has increased from N150,000 to N300,000 or even more.”

He noted that newly built houses in Sabon Gari New Extension are particularly expensive.

He also blamed housing agents for the skyrocketing rent, saying they charge excessive commissions from tenants before giving them houses.

“I do a monthly contribution (Adashi) to save up for rent before the year ends because if I don’t, it becomes a serious problem couple with the children school fees to pay,” he added.

Another tenant at an estate in Millennium City, Kaduna, Baban Sultan, said he pays ?500,000 per year for the house he currently lives in.

According to him, houses in that estate now go for ?1 million per year for a 3-bedroom flat. “I used to pay ?400,000, but it was increased to ?500,000 and now almost N1m,” he said adding that rents in that part used to be relatively low before now.

“Honestly, if you’re looking for a decent house, you’ll have to pay up to a million naira per year. There’s this perception that everyone living in estates is rich, but that’s not the reality,” he explained.

Hajiya Maimuna Sani, another resident of Kaduna, said a 3-bedroom flat in the Kawo community goes for ?600,000, as against N400, 000

Kano

The situation is not different in Kano as landlords have doubled the rent of their property forcing tenants to pay through their nose,a stark reality of the impact of living cost crisis on virtually all sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Idris Sanni, a Ghanian national running a tailoring business in Kano, said his house rent was recently increased from ?150,000 to ?250,000

Sanni lives at Darmanawa quarters, an area in Tarauni local government area populated by low income families and small scale entrepreneurs like him.

“The house was built 10 to 15 years ago but the owner increased my rent by ?100,000.This is not unfair but unjust. I have been paying the rent regularly though I struggle with my business. Sometimes I have to take sewn clothes to Ghana to sell when the market here is saturated. No renovation of the property was done to justify the hike of the rent and the agent has,” he lamented.

Maiduguri

In Maiduguri metropolis, property in choice locations like the old and new GRA, Legacy estate, Pompomari bypass, Damboa Road, Polo, Jiddari, Lagos Street and Giwa Army Barracks have become out of reach.

A land agent, Bala Legacy, said a rent for 3-bedroom plat in legacy housing estate now ranges between N700,000 and N1000,000.

A tenant in the estate, Mallam Hamisu said the rent was increased astronomically within the last one year from N400 000 to N1.

“Last year, I was renting a 3-bedroom flats, ground floor, N400,000 per annum. But, the owner suddenly asked me to leave his property eleven months before my rent expired, and brought in another tenant that started paying N1m.

Another property agent at Damboa Road, Barrister Umar, told our correspondent that the least one can rent a 3-bedroom flat in the area is N1.2 million.

One of the tenants, Adewale George, told our correspondent that the frequent increase of his house rent by the landlord forced him to leave the area.

“The man just came and did some little renovations and the next thing was a notice of rent review. It’s 5 flats apartment, and the rest of the tenants were NGO staff.

“So, after the NGOs operations folded up. They left and I was left alone in the house. We were paying N250,000 when I came newly. He gradually raised it to N350,000; N500,000; N700,000 and left when he approached me with another review plan,” he said.

Katsina

In Katsina State, a bank staff, Ibrahim Ahmad, said he had to relocate to a new place with lower as his former landlord had doubled the amount that he used to pay.

“When I got into the house first, it was N150,000 that I paid. Two years later, it was increased to N200,000 and then N250,000, and late last year, he increased it to N350,000. I had to relocate to another area to get the one of N250,000,” he said.

Why rent is on the rise in major northen cities

However, a developer, Alhaji Hamza Abubakar, outlined four reasons for increasing cost of house rents in Katsina, state, particularly in the metropolis.

“Number one, we have the increased number of NGOs, particularly foreign sponsored NGOs that are coming into the state to render humanitarian services. Their officers and staff do rent places for their houses and offices. This is one factor.

“Number two, you have the influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) into the cities, renting places for their homes and businesses. This led to the scarcity of the buildings to be rented out, thus high cost of rent.

“Number three, we have high cost of building materials, which is preventing people, especially newly wedded, from building their own houses and they have to resort to renting places to live, thus aggravating the problem of non-availability. And for those that are able to build to hire out, they can’t use huge amounts of resources and then collect a little for rent.

“Lastly, those of us that are developers, we are also human beings, we have our other needs, we have children that go to school and everything has gone up. And it is through our means of livelihood that we will see how we can increase our income to cater for our other needs,” he explained.

Also commenting on the rising cost of rent in Kano, Muttaqa Abdullahi a private developer said cost of building materials has more than doubled and hiking rent is essentially to recoup the investment.

“What we used to buy at ?500,000, for instance, has jumped to over 1 million naira. Costs of cement, labour and even sand and gravel have astronomically gone high. The cost of building a two bedroom house i unused to complete with just ?10 million have risen from ?18 million to over 30 million naira now. This is the reality that is why in highbrow areas like Ribadu Road or Bawo Road at Hausawa quarters you don’t get a house rent of below a million naira,” Abdullahi explained.

It is observed that the rising cost of building materials, location, agency fees and general inflation are some of the factors driving the increase in tenancy rates in Kano. (Daily Trust)