Nigerian Property Leaders Urge Tax Credits, VAT Relief and Guarantees to Scale Private Housing

At a chief executives' panel in Lagos, Tola Akinsulire, Group Chief Commercial Officer of Mixta Africa, laid out what he thinks Nigeria's housing policy has missed. The session, on delivering housing at scale through collaboration, was part of the Africa PropTech Priority Summit organised by Proptech Roundup.

Akinsulire's argument was that policy has leaned heavily on mortgages without addressing the wider system needed to build homes and make them affordable. His example was Morocco, where his company delivered 4,393 units on a single site under a government programme.

He described how that programme worked. In 2010, developers who committed to building homes priced at 250,000 dirhams and to delivering at least 500 units within five years received tax credits covering parts of the value chain, including cement and corporate income tax. Buyers of qualifying homes were exempt from VAT. A government-backed guarantee covered up to 70 per cent of lenders' credit risk after a default. "That made banks willing to lend and buyers able to buy," he said, calling it a market engineered on both the supply and demand sides.

He also pressed governments to say whether public-private partnerships are meant to generate revenue or to deliver social interventions, since each requires a different split of costs and risks. Where the aim is affordable housing for civil servants and other target groups, he said, government should contribute land, infrastructure and other support and agree realistic prices. He named trust, buyer affordability and developers' capacity to deliver as the keys to success, and said more attention was needed on strengthening that capacity. He also asked technology firms to build tools that cut cost and risk in land titling, development approvals, construction monitoring, sales and off-plan financing. "Technology must either reduce friction or reduce risk," he said.

Olajumoke Akinwunmi, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Alitheia Capital, named weak engagement, inadequate frameworks and lack of trust as the main obstacles to PPPs. She wants stronger collaboration and properly prepared projects, not reliance on land banks without groundwork. "Often, after the handshake, you get to site and still deal with Omo Onile, compensation and unbuildable portions. That is not a ready project," she said. She also advocated transparent procurement and developing local industries to support construction. She put the scale of the challenge at about 30 million units: a deficit of roughly 15 million homes plus more than 15 million existing houses that are structurally inadequate or substandard.

Odunayo Ojo, Chief Executive Officer of UPDC, framed affordability as an economic problem driven by rising government charges and low household incomes. He called for tax relief and pioneer status incentives for developers, arguing that higher charges undercut efforts to lower construction costs. "Rates and charges have tripled this year, yet we say we want cheaper housing," he said. Many Nigerians, he noted, could not buy a home even with zero-interest mortgages because their incomes are too low. He urged developers and other stakeholders to collaborate to cut overheads and improve delivery.

The panel's requests are specific: tax credits, VAT exemptions, guarantees, relief on charges and clearer PPP terms. What to watch is whether any of them draws a response from government on levies and partnership frameworks.