Ekiti Gov Moves To Stop Outrageous House Rents

• Says Agents Prefer To Give House To ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ Boys

Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has begun moves to correct the disturbing trend of outrageous house rents by regulating the real estate sector in the state.

The move was disclosed by the Special Adviser to the Governor, Ekiti State Bureau of Housing and Mortgage Development, Dr Gbenga Oloniyo, on Friday.

Oloniyo said the state government would soon make laws and regulations to check the arbitrarily high rents in the state to make life easy for residents.

Oloniyo who spoke in Ado Ekiti during a meeting of government representatives with the real estate players under the aegis of Estate Rent and Commission Agents of Nigeria, Ekiti State chapter, expressed the governor’s dissatisfaction with the outrageous rents obtainable in the state and the attendant effect on residents.

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“The governor is interested in making sure that in the real sector, we should moderate and have regulations that will make life easy for the citizenry of Ekiti State. The governor wants to ensure that houses are not only available, they should be accessible and affordable for the people.

“We will not relent on the issue of bad eggs. Flushing them out is our responsibility. By the time the laws and regulations are in place, they will solve the issue of landlords raising their house rents arbitrarily. The laws that will be put in place soon will right the wrongs. The laws are coming,” Oloniyo said.

The Director General, Office of Community Communication, Governor’s Office, Mrs Mary Oso-Omotoso, while also speaking, said that report had put rent in Ekiti State at highest in the South-West region.

She noted that said such had called for the need to address the situation through regulation to relieve residents of the accompanying hardship.

Oso-Omotoso, frowned at agents’ preference for internet fraudsters since they could pay any amount, saying, “If estate agents are patronising the ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ boys, what happens to the teachers, the civil servants, the small business owners and the petty traders? They deserve to live in befitting houses in the state where they work.”

In his remarks, the ERCAN state chairman, Price Ayeoba, noted that the state government’s collaboration would go a long way to address the issues in the sector, and advised the government “to consider coming up with low-cost housing units to serve accommodation needs and as well compel landlords to bring down the high rents.”