Tambaya Suleiman is the Managing Director, Matrix Courts Limited, a real estate development and investment organization. In this exclusive interview with FRANCIS KADIRI, Suleiman says estate developers must implement policies that will enable low-income earners to own their homes, a move he said will address the country’s housing deficit. Excerpts:
How can the Public Private Partnership policy be improved in the housing sector?
PPP will work better if policy makers put in place a regulatory framework that guarantees flow of funds from development banks to genuine construction companies. We must ensure that public funds get to only organizations that are qualified to receive them. Only qualified developers should get loans from development banks.
Policies should be put in place to make it easy for real estate developers to access the NHF contributions. Idle funds should be made available to genuine developers who will invest the monies and generate good returns. A larger portion of commercial banks’ loan portfolio should be directed at genuine developers.
In due course, I will call on government to establish a scheme with mandate to make off-taker arrangement with governments at federal, state and local government levels on the houses to build.
What is your perception of the current housing challenge in the country, especially that the UN Habitat suggests that the country suffers a housing deficit of 17 million?
Nigeria’s population grows at a rate of 2.55%. As at 2020, Nigeria’s population was put at 206 million. By 2021, our population should have increased to 211 million, meaning that it increased by five million people.
The housing need will increase by the same ratio to over 400,000 houses. In 10 years, if nothing is done to address the increasing demand occasioned by increasing number of citizens, there will be a deficit of about 22 million houses. Abuja being Nigeria’s capital city is a home to decent living and is expected to continue its growth on the same trajectory. It is therefore very important that Abuja is made a sustainable city by the type of houses built.
This is one way in which Matrix Court intends to be different.
Low-income earners should be supported to have decent and affordable housing. This is possible when there is affordable housing. And that is where we intend to play in. Matrix Court does not aim to provide high-end houses, rather we are building affordable homes.
Housing construction is a capital-intensive project. For instance, if the government decides to provide one million houses, it will cost N15 trillion. The government does not have the resources and hence not being able to make that provision.
Your organization, Matrix Court, is investing in real estate? What are your objectives?
Our decision to invest in real estate is to significantly contribute to stakeholder efforts to address home deficit in the country. This is our first objective. We want to bridge the housing gap. Nigeria’s housing gap is extremely large and poses serious challenges to sustainable development and economic growth.
According to some experts, the deficit exceeds 17 million housing units. With Nigeria’s population growth, the housing challenge will increase and pose a lot of problems. So, Matrix Court desires to reduce the housing deficit by providing affordable and sustainable homes.
As much as possible, we want to enable various category of income earners to enjoy the honour and dignity associated with home ownership. Housing is a human right. We want to support stakeholder efforts to actualize this critical right.
Number 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNs – SDG) states that by Year 2050, over 6.5 billion people will be living in cities. So, we must begin to build sustainable cities and communities that will shelter the population explosion.
The housing sector has what it takes to create greater number of jobs. We are leveraging on this potential. While creating direct jobs, we want to attract investment that will yield great returns. So, apart from providing homes and shelters, Matrix Court will serve as manager of funds for people who believe in the potential of the housing sector to yield lucrative returns on investment.
“With Nigeria’s population growth, the housing challenge will increase and pose a lot of problems
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How would Matrix Court contribute to addressing the housing shortfall?
We will develop affordable but world-class housing in Abuja. We have started doing this in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. We will use the best materials and give a very qualitative finished housing for the middle-level income earners.
How do you intend to work with prospective customers with regards the Family Homes Fund, National Housing Fund and other policies of government created to ease home ownership?
In order to make funding easy for prospective buyers, we are developing very flexible payment plan. The burden of paying the entire cost does not have to be borne. The choice is up to the buyer to chose between one-off payment or spread it to 36 months. We will collaborate with those contributing to National Housing Fund Scheme to access their contribution.
Kindly discuss the kind of homes that will typify the estate
We are building five-bedroom stand-alone triplex. This is the most exotic category of our houses.There are only three of them, each sits on a 500Sqm land. In addition to being spacious, these categories of houses are surrounded by all year-round green vegetation. This is designed to conform to green home standards for energy efficiency, ventilation, and space management. We build ecofriendly homes for energy efficiency and recycled materials.
The parking is made to accommodate only four vehicles so that the serenity of the greenery will not be lost. There are two sitting rooms, six restrooms, 24 hours clean energy and broadband that gives good speed internet.
There are also five-bedroom terraces. We have created 20 lavishing accommodation of terraces in triplexes. The floor space is much because we went up on floors. These houses will have a space for gym and study in the house. There are two sets of 10 each of both Premium Deluxe terraces, each sitting on 90Sqm and 75Sqm respectively. The parking is made to accommodate only three vehicles.
There are five bedrooms, two sitting rooms, six restrooms, 24 hours clean energy and broadband that gives good speed internet. This is designed to conform to green home standards for energy efficiency, ventilation, and space management. We build our houses to be eco-friendly for energy efficiency and recycled materials.
We also have the four-Bedroom Premium Terrace: This type has four in a terrace. Each sits on 90Sqm. The parking is made to accommodate only three vehicles.
There are four bedrooms, two sitting rooms, five restrooms, 24 hours clean energy and broadband that gives good speed internet. This is designed to conform to green home standards for energy efficiency, ventilation, and space management.
Our three-Bedroom Terrace type is the only category that is a duplex. It is tastily spacious with a study/gym that can be converted to a four-bedroom home if the owner so desires. But for our love of comfortable living and the concept of home, well spacious family lounge was included here for family bonding time either in prayers, games or serious discuss away from the general public downstairs. The parking is made to accommodate only three vehicles. There are three bedrooms, two sitting rooms, five restrooms, 24 hours clean energy and broadband that gives good speed internet. This is designed to conform to green home standards for energy efficiency, ventilation, and space management. We build our houses to be ecofriendly for energy efficiency and recycled materials.
What payment plans would be available to prospective customers, especially those who may not be able to make outright payment?
Financially buoyant clients can make one-time payment, especially that the houses are affordable. As a result of huge investment that clients make in this, we created an attractive discount. Secondly, there is provision for part payments, depending on what the client prefers, and a choice of how to pay in staggered structure is the prerogative of the client. They may choose to pay monthly, quarterly, biannual, or annually.
Our desire is to create houses and be able to make people afford them. As a responsive organization, Matrix Court encourages the client to prescribe how they want to make payment.
Clients who are contributors to the National Housing Fund Scheme, we will access the fund for the contributors to enable them utilize their contributions.
What strategies are in place to ensure structural integrity of the buildings, and what assurances are in place for sustainability?
We are concerned about our integrity more than anything. We are building houses that last, and that will stand the test of time. We are committing to putting the best materials, and we have decided to keep conducting integrity test at different intervals in the span of the project.
As part of assurance we guarantee, we are signing an agreement with all our vendors on provision of only qualitative items. We engage reputable vendors in order not to compromise quality.
