Don’t Spend More Than 40% of Your Income on Rent, Hamzat Tells Lagos Workers

Lagos State Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, has advised young workers to avoid putting themselves under pressure to rent expensive apartments, urging them to consider living with parents, relatives or in shared accommodation while building their financial strength.

Hamzat gave the advice during a question-and-answer session on Nigeria Info FM on Thursday, while responding to concerns about the rising cost of accommodation in Lagos and how low-income earners can cope.

The deputy governor was asked how a 22-year-old earning N100,000 monthly could afford a self-contained apartment or mini-flat costing about N1 million a year.

In response, Hamzat said young people should choose accommodation based on what they can afford rather than trying to immediately live in expensive apartments.

“Don’t let us misunderstand ourselves as a people. We are cultural people. Do you understand? So, if I start work as a young person and I’m not married, a lot of us live with our parents. A lot of us live with our cousins,” he said.

Hamzat added that young workers should not feel compelled to move into self-contained apartments if their incomes could not comfortably support the cost.

“So, if you don’t start from the top self-contained, you don’t start from the top. You start from the average depending on,” he said.

He also advised residents to avoid spending more than 40 per cent of their income on rent, noting that workers still have to cater for food, transport, clothing and other essential needs.

“In fact, if you spend more than 40 per cent of your income on rent, it is too high because you must eat, you must buy clothes, you must do transportation,” Hamzat said.

Lagos pushes mortgage-based home ownership

Beyond rental accommodation, Hamzat said the state government was working towards making home ownership more achievable through mortgage financing.

According to him, Nigerians cannot continue to rely solely on one-off payments to purchase properties, especially at a time when housing costs are beyond the reach of many households.

“But the challenge is we cannot continue to buy houses the way we buy rice and yam. Do you understand? So, we must buy properties using a mortgage, and that’s why we have a mortgage board in Lagos,” he said.

Hamzat said the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA) number would also help the government establish residents’ identities, addresses and places of work when assessing their eligibility for housing finance.

“So that we can know that, okay, you live in Lagos. This is where you live. This is your address. This is where you work. So that there is a credit bill that checks everything that says, okay, you can pay,” he said.

Giving an example, the deputy governor said a property valued at N7 million could be purchased with an initial payment of N700,000, representing 10 per cent, while the remaining balance could be spread over 10 years.

He said monthly repayments could be tailored to the buyer’s income, with some people paying about N25,000 or N35,000 monthly.

“That is the way to go because we know that a lot of people will not be able to afford to pay a one-shot deal,” Hamzat said.

He encouraged young people to start with smaller properties and gradually work towards owning better homes as their incomes and savings improved.

“The bottom line is, like I said, the culture of ability to save, so that if people see that you can save money, then I can give you a property,” he said.

Deputy governor calls for stronger economy

Hamzat, however, acknowledged that housing affordability cannot be addressed in isolation from the wider economy.

He said workers need better incomes and greater economic stability to cope with the rising cost of living and housing.

“What is important is we must also build our economy in such a way that people earn better, you understand, so that everybody can be uplifted, and that is the bottom line,” he said.

According to him, stabilising the cost of goods and services would also make it easier for residents to plan their finances and meet housing costs.

Lagos has previously promoted mortgage-based housing initiatives, including the LagosHOMS scheme, which allows eligible subscribers to acquire homes through structured payment arrangements.