FINANCING, POOR PROJECT PLANNING BEHIND ABANDONED BUILDINGS IN NIGERIA – SURVEYOR

An estate surveyor and valuer, Olalekan Akinwumi, has identified inadequate funding and poor project feasibility as major reasons behind the growing number of abandoned buildings across Nigeria.

Akinwumi, Principal Partner of Lekan Akinwumi & Co, said the problem goes beyond the country’s housing deficit, stressing that the circumstances surrounding each abandoned property must be properly investigated.

He noted that some developers lose access to funding midway through construction, while others struggle to complete projects because of rising costs of building materials, labour and other construction expenses.

According to him, some developers also commence projects without conducting adequate market research or preparing realistic cash-flow projections and financial assessments.

He explained that rising prices of cement, steel and labour could turn a project that was initially financially viable into an unsustainable investment.

Akinwumi further identified land ownership disputes, defective property titles, litigation and planning approval challenges as factors capable of keeping construction projects on hold for years.

His comments come amid the Federal Government’s plan to identify and recover about 250,000 housing units contained in abandoned projects nationwide, with the aim of making some of them available to Nigerians, including civil servants.

He cautioned that simply counting abandoned buildings would not address the problem, insisting that government must establish who owns each property, why construction stopped and whether the project can realistically be completed.

The surveyor maintained that understanding the causes of abandonment would help determine the right approach to recovering the properties and improving housing delivery in the country.