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Lagos State Deputy Governor and All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate Obafemi Hamzat announced that the state government plans to strictly enforce legal limits preventing landlords from demanding two or three years of advance rent.
Speaking Sunday at the Nigeria Debate Consortium governorship debate, Hamzat emphasised that the next administrative priority is ensuring full compliance with real estate regulations to protect tenants from excessive upfront payments.
He urged residents to report non-compliant landlords and unregistered estate agents using the official Lagos State Real Estate Registration Agency digital portal.
“So the next chapter for Lagos is to enforce, to make sure. So people should not be asked for 2 years or 3 years ahead because nobody gets a salary three years ahead,” Hamzat stated during the broadcast.
Addressing his campaign platform, he added, “If you look at my manifesto, the E part is everyday dignity. What it says is people should not pay rent; that demystifies their dignity. And what that means is we must work with landlords. We understand that we run a capitalist economy.”
To tackle overall housing affordability, Hamzat outlined plans to streamline property title regularisation online and encourage private developers building in high-income districts like Ikoyi and Victoria Island to invest in less affluent neighbourhoods.
“As you develop a property, say in Ikoyi or VI, can you develop another one in Egodo? So those are part of the discussions that we will have so that as we are building for the rich, we’re also building for the poor, apart from what the government is doing to make sure that people actually have housing,” he said.
