To meet the growing demand for housing in Port Harcourt and its environs, an Estate Valuer, Joseph Ekanem, has said that about one million housing units are needed to cater for the geometric increase in population within Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n

Ekanem who spoke to The Tide in a chat in Port Harcourt, especially on matters of increasing demand in housing and rent, noted that enough had not been done or recorded in the housing supply in Port Harcourt and its environs.<\/p>\n

On how this can be realisable, Ekanem, an estate value and the principal partner of Joebless Associates, said that the public private partnership option may yet be the way forward, since neither government nor private individuals will be capable to carry the burden.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cif we must make progress in this direction of providing housing for all our people, then we must strengthen the mortgage sector, and its advantage is that those living in rented houses today, would still pay as much as they are paying as rent but the difference is that they would be paying towards the eventual ownership of their houses at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The estate valuer stated that the lack of virile mortgage system had been the reason why many people here have remained tenants and many others homeless, but that the current transformation that is going on at Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) would enable subscribers to the National Housing Fund to draw mortgages from the bank.<\/p>\n

Ekanem, however, called for the support of Governor Chibuike Amaechi to put more efforts in the housing and estate projects, describing Port Harcourt and its environs as the hub of the Niger Delta, and oil exploration activities with its ever increasing population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Corlins Walter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To meet the growing demand for housing in Port Harcourt and its environs, an Estate Valuer, Joseph Ekanem, has said that about one million housing units are needed to cater for the geometric increase in population within Port Harcourt. Ekanem who spoke to The Tide in a chat in Port Harcourt, especially on matters of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n