Mortgage, which refers to house-ownership through a long payment plan that allows the buyer to live in the house while defraying the mortgage debt, is hard to come buy in Nigeria. In some other places, it’s just a matter of having a good credit record, which then guarantees you financing from a bank that enables you to buy a house.
To the contrary, most house purchases in Nigeria are currently being done through full and immediate payment by the buyers. While legal and administrative structures are being expanded to increase access to mortgage financing, the impact is yet to be felt on a broad scale.
Under the National Housing Fund law, employees are required to contributed 2,5 percent of their monthly salaries to a National Housing Fund, designed to be a funding pool for house ownership. This fund is managed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, which is supposed to ensure its disbursement by working through mortgage banks.
The success rate remains very low, with xxx people getting the loan every year, when the country has a housing deficit of 17 million homes, requiring xx number of houses per hear over xx number of years to defray it. Not many people are willing to joint that interminable queue, and through the information we provide on nairaweb.ng, such people can find alternative approaches to house acquisition.
For instance, in many cities across Nigeria, there are estate developers that offer long payment plans. Others will ask you to pay for the land and then build the house at your own pace. Yet, most Nigerian banks also offer their own mortgage-lending products that are independent of the FMBN system. There are also other options with a mix of different characteristic. We are here to provide information on what is available to help you decide what works for you.