BEVERLY HILLS, July 12, (THEWILL) – A Real Estate operator, Olatunde Balogun has decried the inflexible rent payment in some parts of the country.
Balogun, the Co-founder, Rent Small Small Ltd., said this in an interview with journalists saying a flexible payment will go a long way in addressing the high rate of unoccupied and overpriced apartments in Nigerian.
He said that rent issue was a fundamental challenge for many Nigerians, and had led to many properties being unoccupied, with thousands of citizens living outside states where they work.
“It is a known fact that many people face a lot of challenges when trying to get a new apartment in the country, aside paying upfront for the rent, they also have to pay agent and legal fees.
“This constitutes a huge burden on a lot of people, especially the youths. Some of them have to save first, take loans or borrow the money from friends and family just to get a place of their own.
“Also, a lot of people cannot live in close proximity to their workplace, they have to get a place further out of town, and we lose productivity because of people traveling three to six hours to and from work every day.
“Having lived in other countries for almost fifteen years, I enjoyed flexible rental payment on apartments in those countries, and I feel it is something that we can replicate in Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, his company has been liaising with landlords across the country to release their properties for rent on a monthly, quarterly or bi-annual basis.
“We are beginning to see landlords of many unoccupied properties in high brow areas of Lagos and Abuja on-board our platform.
“The good thing is that the unoccupied apartments that were termed overpriced are now occupied because we were able to persuade the owners to reduce the rents,” he said.
Balogun said that the platform provides rent insurance for property owners against rent default as well as ensure sustainability of the initiative.
“The insurance protects the landlord and invariably the tenant, incase if a sitting tenant loses his job, the insurance company steps in and ensures payment to the landlord for a period of four months, while the tenant tries to get a new job,” he said.
Balogun noted that the company had invested a lot in technology and partnered with various banks to ensure effective compliance to `Standing Order’ on tenants’ accounts as they earn.
“It is a revolution to change the real estate landscape of the country, so that anyone can rent a house and pay conveniently as long as they are earning money,” Balogun said.
He noted that the flexible payment initiatives would enhance productivity, reduce rate of unoccupied properties, release more liquidity from rents into the system and boost the development of the real estate industry.
