Experts Demand Urgent Land Use Act Reform and Strict Rental Regulation to Tackle Nigeria’s ‘Unbearable’ Housing Costs

As the year 2025 draws to a close, the conversation surrounding Nigeria’s deepening housing crisis has taken a sharp turn toward policy intervention. Prominent housing advocates and urban planners are warning that without a fundamental overhaul of land ownership laws and market oversight, the dream of affordable homeownership will remain “slipping out of reach” for millions of Nigerians.

Speaking at a year-end housing summit in Abuja today, Monday, December 29, 2025, Festus Adebayo, Executive Director of the Housing Development Network of Nigeria (HDAN), emphasized that the current “dystopian” reality where families spend over 60% of their income on rent is a direct result of policy failure rather than a lack of land.

“We cannot continue to outsource shelter entirely to an unchecked market,” Adebayo stated. “History teaches us that when people cannot live with dignity, insecurity follows. Regulation is not about price-fixing; it is about transparency and ensuring that the Land Use Act doesn’t act as a barrier to development.”

A major pillar of the expert recommendation is the urgent reform of the Land Use Act. Currently, the difficulty in obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) prevents many developers from securing the financing needed for mass-scale projects. By digitizing land registries and shortening the approval time for titles, experts argue that billions in “frozen wealth” could be unlocked to fund the National Housing Fund (NHF).

The call for reform also targets the “chaos” of the rental market. With the success of the Lagos Tenancy Bill 2025, which introduced standardized digital rent agreements, experts are now urging other states to adopt similar models to curb the 80% rent surges seen in urban centers over the last twelve months.

Furthermore, the surge in “luxury-only” developments has been identified as a critical mismatch. “We are building skyscrapers for the wealthy while the people who keep the city running the teachers, the nurses, the artisans are forced into distant peripheries with 6-hour daily commutes,” the report noted. The proposed solution involves Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) that mandate strict affordability quotas and the adoption of prefabricated housing methods to crash construction timelines and costs.

As Nigeria enters 2026, the government is being urged to view housing not just as a commodity, but as vital infrastructure essential for national productivity and social stability. The message from the experts is clear: the era of “scattered pilot projects” is over; the time for bold, legislative-led mass housing has arrived.