PROPERTY NEWS

The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) is to deliver over 100,000 housing units nationwide over the next four years under a renewed mandate given to it by the Federal Government to promote sustainable mass housing in the country.

FHA Managing Director, Mr. Terver Gemade, made this known in Abuja last week when he visited the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsanye.

Gemade said the management of the authority had developed an Action Plan through which it hoped to fulfill the mandate.

Represented on the occasion by the Executive Director, Estate Services, Mr. Bello G. Issa, the FHA Chief Executive said the authority would deliver 14,000 housing units between now and June 2010 and 54,000 units between June 2010 and June 2012, while the remaining 38,000 units would be delivered between June 2012 and June 2013.

In the 36 years of its existence, Gemade said the body had delivered 34,000 housing units in 76 estates across the country and explained that such dismal performance was due to the various challenges it contended. He listed some of these to include land acquisition, dearth of long term funds, mode of construction and inadequate housing infrastructure.

Stressing that a vibrant housing sector had been the bedrock of many economies, he said the authority, in its bid to overcome the challenges, had adopted eight delivery models in order to meet its target.

The models, he said, are direct development, public-private partnership, public-public partnership, co-operative housing, rental housing, regeneration, new town development as well as site and services.

Under direct development, he noted that the authority would continue its traditional system and hoped to build 2,000 housing units between now and June next year, 6,000 units between June 2010 and June 2012 and 4,000 units between June 2012 and 2013.

It would deliver 14,000 housing units through public private partnership consisting of 2,500 units between now and June next year, 6,500 units between June next year and June 2012 and 5,000 units in the final year.

Gemade said 4,000 units would be delivered between now and June 2013 under the public-public partnership model, adding that the authority would target the Ministry of the Niger Delta, state and local governments, the police and para-military establishments as well as other ministries, departments and agencies of government.

Under the co-operative housing model, he said 8,000 houses would be built through identified cooperatives in various parts of the country. No fewer than 25,000 units would be delivered under the Abuja New Town project, Gemade said, adding that with the planned expansion of the Airport Expressway and the Outer Northern Expressway in Abuja to accommodate more traffic from normal vehicular traffic and the new mass transit system, the FHA hoped to capitalise on the improved traffic in those areas to develop new towns either in Kuje or Bwari.

To cater for those who may not have the means to acquire their own houses, Gemade said FHA would within the action plan period build 3,000 units through the Rental Housing Model while additional 2,000 units would be delivered through the regeneration model in the authority's existing estates.

He said the authority wished to participate in the staff home ownership scheme and the housing infrastructure fund being administered by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

Responding, Oronsanye said although he had reservations with how the owner-occupier scheme had operated, he was willing to work with the FHA because it was a government agency.

He directed the FHA management to liaise with one of the Permanent Secretaries in his office, Dr. Eudigie Abebe, under whose purview the issue fell.

Also on the FHA team were the Executive Director, Management Services, Alhaji Abbakar Abba Abdulkadir and the General Manager, Estate Services, Alhaji Mohammed Goronyo.