Of Nigeria's six geo-political zones, the southeast is the smallest in terms of land mass as it five states have less square kilometres than states like Borno or Niger. This problem is compounded by the fact that southeast Nigeria has one of the highest population densities in the country, resulting in too many people chasing too little land.
Although about half of Nigeria's 30m Igbos live outside the southeast, the available land within the southeast is still highly inadequate for those who live there. As a result over recent months, house rents in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States have risen astronomically.
In Igbo tradition, apart from children, land and shelter are the second most valuable assets of any family, which has compounded the problem further. As a result, it is a taboo in some places for people to sell land to strangers or non-natives without exhausting the family option to see if any of its members would buy.
Families also, live in clusters and strangers are not encouraged to own properties in such settings, which makes the problem particularly bad for migrant workers like civil servants. In Anambra State, high rent costs is driving many people to the villages as many of them say their incomes could no longer match what is being charged by landlords.
For instance, a two bedroom apartment, which attracted annual rent of about N120,000 (£420) in Awka and Onitsha, Anambra State, six years ago is about N250,000 at the moment. Also, a three bedroom flat that attracted about N200,000 per annum is now about N450,000, depending on the location.
Similarly, duplexes and bungalows in highbrow areas in the two cities attract N1m and N600,000 per annum respectively, while the cost of self-contained apartments, which are very popular among undergraduates and unmarried workers, have increased to about N250,000 per annum from N120,000 a few years ago.
Experts in the housing sector believe that the problem became very acute because the various administrations have not been investing much in housing development. For instance, since the creation of the new Anambra State in 1991, not up to 200 houses have been completed by any state government.
When civil servants relocated to Awka from Enugu after the state creation, there were virtually no houses in their new state capital and most of the workers stayed put in Enugu and many of them are still shuttling between Enugu and Awka for work. Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, the first civilian governor of the state built the Real Estate close to Government House, which contained only few houses, while the next civilian governor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju planned the Abuja Estate opposite the Government, the Iyiagu Estate and the Ngozika Estate, although he could not complete them before leaving office.
When Chris Ngige and Peter Obi mounted the saddle, they were more preoccupied with the opening up of the rural areas of the state and concentrated on road development to the detriment of the housing sector. Both governors tried to use private developers for mass housing but it appeared funding was a major drawback.
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