Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed that 7,315 applications have been received for the purchase of houses on the online portal of the National Housing Programme in the first week of the launch.
The Director of Press and Public Relations, Boade Akinola, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Friday, in Abuja,
The statement read that Fashola, while addressing the Senate Committee on Housing, on Thursday, said, “As at today, 7,315 applications have been received so far and the number is still growing.”
It stressed that the ministry was working towards selling the houses to interested members of the public through the online platform for openness and transparency, adding that the categories of the houses were different from the ones in the open market.
According to it, the houses being offered for sale are generous in terms of space, citing the one-bed room as having 60sqm, 2 bedroom 76sqm and the 3 bedroom 110sqm.
It read, “There are 1, 2, 3 bedrooms, some of which are bungalows. The minimum house is N7.2m and the highest is about N16m.“
The ministry, it stated, carried out a survey on the types of houses Nigerians desired to live in to avoid incidence where some houses that were built did not conform with the peoples’ needs.
“This is, digital age. If we buy air ticket and book hotels through the internet, we believe we could do the same in applying for the houses,” it quoted Fashola as saying.
The requirements for the purchase were listed to include submission of passport photographs, tax clearance, means of identification, and payment of N10,000 application fee, amongst others, with the caveat that an applicant is not permitted to buy more than one house.
On why the prices differed in some states, the statement cited difference in topography and cost of building as the determining factors, adding, ”The cost of building houses in Bayelsa, for example, is higher than doing same in Osogbo.
“Affordability is not just a function of the cost, but also the mode of payment. That was why we created the rent-to-own option of payment.”
Senator Sam Egwu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing, lauded the minister for his commitment to housing delivery to Nigerians.
(NAN).
