With the rising cost of buying a house in Nigeria, you are probably on the lookout for an alternative low-cost house that helps you become a homeowner without drilling a gaping hole in your pocket.
Architects have maintained that a growing population of people are opting for building their own homes as opposed to buying a property. This explains why you would rather go for the option of building a low-cost house as opposed to buying one that has already been built.
Building a low-cost house in Nigeria requires very careful planning. There are certain elements that you must factor into your building plans if you intend to build a house successfully. This easy guide we have put together will help you build a perfect house with a manageable budget.
The Budget
The budget is arguably the most important factor you put into consideration when you are building a low-cost house. The idea here is to save as much money as possible so you have to decide precisely how much you plan to spend on the house. Coming up with the budget is one part of the equation. Sticking to the budget is another.
If you do not come up with a budget, then you might be doomed to fail. Regardless of the amount of money you have saved up, you need to consider your following:
1. The House
What kind of house are you trying to build? A bungalow or a 5-bedroom duplex? You need this to determine what building materials you will buy as well as the quantity.
2. Research
Find out precisely what you need to build the house. Are you going to need 50 trucks of granite or 30? How many bags of cement are you going to need to complete the house?
3. Additional Fees
The fact that the price of a plot of land has been set at N8 million doesn’t mean that’s all you’re going to pay. There are always additional charges here in Nigeria. Additional fees that come with building a house in Nigeria include:
A). Survey Plan: This rests largely on the location of the land and is usually between N150,000 and N300,000.
B). Legal Fee: This is usually 5% of what the land costs
C). Agency Fee: This is also 5% of what the land costs
D). Cost of Signing Documents: The officials in Lagos State in charge of this have a strange tradition of making you pay to get your documents. In other states in Nigeria, this is not applicable.
E). Cost of Securing Your Documents: Before you perfect your documents like your C of O at the Land Registry, you’ll be required to pay a fee.
Location
Location means everything when you are building a low-cost house. The cost of building a 4-bedroom duplex in Lagos is not the same as building the same structure in Oyo State or Ogun State. Lagos will definitely cost you more considering the cost of the following – Cost of acquiring land, cost of building materials, cost of labour and cost of furniture.
Lagos is a commercial hub and building a house is not cheap but there are neighbourhoods that are more cost friendly than others. For instance, if you are building on a budget, neighbourhoods like Ikoyi, Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikeja might not be the wisest places to build a house in. However, the likes of Ikorodu, Agege, Abule Egba, Akute and Ipaja are more cost friendly.
Purpose of Building
This is very important. If you are building a house with your mind set on the resale value of the property in a few years down, your priorities would be quite different from if you were building a house you simply want to live in.
To get a complete feel of a neighbourhood, you can take a look at neighbourhood guides. If you are building a house where you want to live in either by yourself or with your family, your primary concerns should be:
1. Safety
You don’t have to walk through a neighbourhood past midnight to know how safe it is. Pay a visit to these neighbourhoods and have a conversation with residents around safety and crime level.
2. Comfort
What you describe as comfortable might not mean the same to others. Look out for the things that matter to you. For instance, the Ikeja Neighbourhood Guide provides you with an array of information on the Ikeja district to make living easier and more comfortable.
3. Convenience
This revolves around things like ease of movement and availability of basic amenities. For instance, a neighbourhood with only one school cannot be as convenient for you when compared with one that has over 20 schools and 10 hospitals.
4. Budget
Don’t stretch your budget to a point where it affects other equally important things you plan to do.
Acquiring Land
You need land to build your land on and like other factors, you must think this through before you acquire the land. Since you already know the neighbourhood where you want to build your house, focus on the following:
1. Size of the Land
A plot of land would usually suffice especially since you are building on a budget.
2. Omo Onile
You must be wary of thugs, crooks and touts who pose as land grabbers. The notorious Omo Oniles are also to be feared given the horror stories shared by Nigerians. We don’t advise you to buy from them. Concentrate on doing due diligence for you buy. This helps you avoid buying land that has already been acquired. Remember to get all documents that prove you own the land including the Certificate of Occupancy also known as the C of O.
3. Needs
Settle for land that meets the personal needs of you and your family.
4. Proof of Ownership
Anyone who tries to sell you land and is reluctant to show you proof of ownership is as good as trying to sell you a stolen car. Would you buy a stolen car? Documents like the receipt, land survey, Letter of Allocation, Power of Attorney, Gazette and Deed of Assignment must be available. It doesn’t matter if this person is your aunt, uncle or boss at work, a document is a document and there is no substitute for it. A land verification expert can do this on your behalf.
5. Land Verification
Involve verification experts before you pay for any piece of land. Don’t take anything for granted. The process of land investigation is quite complicated and you should leave it to professionals to do this on your behalf.
6. The Owner
You need to run a ground check on the owner of the property, the land as well as the documents presented by the seller. The last thing you want is to be stuck with fake documents given to you in a hurry by a scam seller. Find out how the seller got the land, why he wants to sell, if there is any existing litigation over the land and the true condition of the land. The last thing you want to do is to pay for land that becomes problematic.
The 3 Professionals
There are 3 professionals who should be involved in your plan to build a house right from the start. Before you buy the land, you need a lawyer, a surveyor and an architect. Make it clear to them that your goal is to build a low-cost house and they will bear this in mind as they work with you towards making decisions and choices that won’t put your budget under any undue pressure.
1. The Lawyer
The lawyer takes responsibility for coming up with legal contract papers. This is important because a lawyer is the one legally recognised at the Land Registry when you get to the point of processing your papers.
2. The Surveyor
You need a registered surveyor to come up with the survey plans for your land. Without this, you would not have a description of the land you have plans to acquire. Before you do this, please ensure the surveyor is duly registered.
3. The Architect
The architect provides a professional recommendation on the kind of house you should build based on your needs and the location of your land. This is not a service you want to carry out yourself especially if you want to avoid mistakes.
Secure a Building Plan
We have dedicated a section to this because of its importance. This is where the architect comes in because the goal is to keep your design simple and cost-effective. Once you have completed all the necessary documentation on the land you acquired, the architect is the next step.
It is the architect’s responsibility to ensure that the house you eventually settle for is a low-cost house? To achieve this, don’t go for anything extravagant. The simpler the design, the less it will cost to build.
What exactly does the architect do for you in your journey towards building your own home?
1. Building Plan
The architect provides the building plan or what is known as the floor plan, which is the drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces and other physical features at one level of a structure. For the building plans, dimensions are usually drawn between the walls to specify room sizes and wall lengths.
2. Building Standards
Building standards ensure that you build a house that falls within the regulations of what you can build. There are legal lines to tread here, which architects are familiar with.
3. Design, Plan and Develop
These are very important responsibilities that sit under the wing of an architect. The architect provides the final construction plans, which are used by builders as a step-by-step guide on how your house will eventually look like. This covers plumbing, communication and heating, electrical, ventilation and structural systems.
Go For Building Materials That Are Cost-Effective
There is no cheap option when it comes to picking the building materials you plan to use. However, for your low-cost house, check out the following:
1. Advantages and Disadvantages
Take a long and hard look at all the options available to you. For instance, how long are you planning to live in the house for? If you plan to live in your house forever, you don’t necessarily want to cut too many corners as this will come back to haunt you through maintenance works in the future.
2. Life-Span, Durability and Maintenance
These factors come together to affect the cost of building your house. Good building materials help you scale down on maintenance cost in the future. For instance, you don’t want to begin dealing with a leaking room 3 years after building your low-cost house.
It’s important to settle for a building design and house that is simple. The more elaborate your design is, the money expensive it becomes to build such a home. Always remember that the end goal is to build a low-cost house. This doesn’t mean you should sacrifice the number of rooms your family needs. Focus more on what you really need as well as your budget.
The mathematics is simple – The larger the house, the more it will cost you to build it. Give the architect you’re working with the creative license to help you scale down on cost.
