In Nigeria, finding an affordable place to live is becoming increasingly difficult.
Africa’s most populous country has a shortage of 24 million homes – and it is expected to get worse.
But property developers are more interested in building high-end homes for Nigeria’s emerging middle class.
Al Jazeera’s as Ahmed Idris reports from the capital Abuja.
– Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe
– Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish
– Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera
– Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
#Nigeria #NigeriaHousing #NigeiraSmartHomes
Surveillance everywhere
I would never have any security system of mine connected to the internet.
@Rohan Krishna From your comment, you strike me as a trade your freedom for security type of person.
@Adventurous Loner That sounds very smart.
@AmarNathan I promise you no government has intrest in watching everyone. They neither have resourse nor a motive unless you do something creepy i.e you becoming a person of interest. So I think if you are leagal law obeying citizen you shouldn’t care. Use common sense and think how can any government monitor all it’s citizen all the time? Simply brainwashed by Americanism yappaa
@Adventurous Loner yes 💯 anyday!
Are they beaut for citizens or outsiders
People are literally starving and we don’t have even basic infrastructure but we’re building luxury houses for rich people.
When the revolution comes where will you hide?
of course they can afford it, since they inherited the money of 1,000,000USD from prince Jonas Rumba of Nigeria and the kind stranger provided the transfer fee to everyone’s benefit and the Lord’s wishes
Your slick way of saying nobody there has good jobs or works hard lol 😂. Western thinking . Just like nobody reports that African countries overall and Nigeria have very low Covid deaths. Only 3000 to date. In Nigeria.The media will never cover this 💡
Haha.they just taking back what the west stole from them lmao
Humans are the same everywhere. Greed triumphs over the needs of their fellow man
@Aisha Bello If you’re so against greedy, why don’t you sell your computer, mobile, shoes, purses and all the nice things you have, then go live in a mud hut, where you can be 1 with nature – let us greedy stupid people continue to want more things out of life.
@J K. thank you 🙌🏿
@Aisha Bello stop insulting people, Aisha.
@Balla jallow Thank you sis. B1👍🏾
@Balla jallow Im just stating Facts.. Besides @J K. started it at 1st by addressing someone with condescension .. Someone who was making an honest comment about the state of ppls minds in this world.
Not my fault that ‘Life’s Truths’ Bothers Ppl.. 🤷🏽♀️
We NEED Human development BEFORE houses‼️
Its good to see there is a growing middle class in Africa. That can only be good for the world’s economy.
@OC G they’ll afford “roads and water” and even housing if they have money from jobs such as those created from the construction of these estates and other projects (because even completely unskilled laborers and security men are needed on construction sites). Economic activity lifts people out of poverty, not charity or pontification.
We do not have a middle class. It’s the elite and the broke.
@Abdulaziz Ladan Nigerians need to stand up fight take the country from the corrupted poppets.
@Jon S I dont think you’re African
@Forever Nova I’m 100% African. What gives you the different impression?
When Westerners have these houses: “It’s ordinary”
When African have these houses: “It’s boom”
@Naomi Powell Another western hater. The rural part of Africa is much bigger than the “huge” cities. Would you prefer to show how well the African lives while having the camera on the big cities? Maybe that way it wouldn’t offend you, little flower.
@McLaren F1 GTR Nah. You hate yourselves and your own being. Thusforth you take it out on others because your instincts knows what’s coming.
@Naomi Powell What do you mean? I do not understand.
i live in Australia in a million dollar property and these houses look better than mine. Any westerners that thinks these houses are ordinary look at the smart house tech on the inside and how nice they look. I am impressed.
@Naomi Powell Ignore Ersin. These apartment are frikn lovely. About time Africe got to enjoy it’s own money and not have it stolen by corruption and foreign thievery. Also his name is Ersin=Horrible name, Naomi=lovely name. 🤔
👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽⚠️
Those houses look really nice… Growing the middle class helps everyone… and homeownership is a big part of middle class wealth…
Not good they’re focusing on the luxury for upper middle class while 83 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty they should focus on elevating the poor ppl .
@OC G it’s a PRIVATE development.
Private developers borrow money from banks (which is NOT free money, but other people’s deposits) to buy land and develop property as their primary source of livelihood (and thus target profitable market segments to recoup the money and repay their loans).
Go and wail to your various state and federal governments about ‘elevating’ the “83 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty” (albeit not quite sure who counted them in a country that cannot even conduct a basic census).
Meanwhile, these private real estate developments actually create scores of JOBS for even “Nigerians living in extreme poverty” – from completely unskilled laborers, security, builders, to semi-skilled carpenters, welders, plumbers, plasterers, etc.
Yes our growing middle class is why we are a target by the west I thought middle eastern people that talked smack about America being the devil were lying the west is in the futile task of bringing our lovely hero leader dr Abiy Ahmed because of his horn integration agenda his reluctance to distance himself from China even though they are offloading most of their low skill labour to Ethiopia and doinfvso would be destroying our prospects of manufacturing China basically included us in the Asian flying goose model of economic developments where a developed Asian nation keeps offshoring the leer skill labour to other countries in the chain while it continues to develop and gets to high tech these practices trickle down that’s why east Asia is the most dynamic region in the world right now and that’s why by gdp ppp asia passes the west I’m 2020 they want to make us like Latin America corrupt and have our demographic dividend turn to demographic burden but I’m sure they’ll fail
You need public housing like Ethiopia government in the capital spent 5 billion dollars on condominiums and the demand is still high it’s not enough if you don’t build it the situation is going to spiral out of control like it did in Hong Kong
Ethiopia’s economy is a joke compared to Nigeria lol.
@Izoto Ethiopia was not blessed with oil like Nigeria but we use what we have to develop. Also, many tribes like oromo and tigray are destroying infrastructure in the capital.
@Izoto yeah if Ethiopia have as much as Nigerian economy nobody will be poor . In Nigeria still have 83 million poor ppl.
@John Doe stupid neftegna stop blaming Oromos and Tigrayans for your distraction, you debtras are the reason the country is going back wards just go back to your stone cave.
@©️ro be nice
My small cottage in the middle of woods is better than these houses.
Atleast i will get the privacy and wont have to worry about governments spying on me
Having a nice house like that in the middle of nowhere with no security, in Nigeria, you are asking to get robbed.
Then enjoy it….. and stop comparing…..
Good for you, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out…🤦♀️
Who is getting all the data they are producing?
@maree brown It would be fairly easy to check who built it, no?
To the highest bidder.
@oceej Ekwam So they are tanking the data ?
@XEXXE Stream Forgive me “tanking?”.
Data is a resource and whoever has it will seek to maximize their profits. Even if any verbal reassurance is given, you can be sure they will not abide by it.
Besides what will the middle class in those “homes” do? Protest and have their bank account frozen or be “locked up” or “locked out” of their home?
My assumptions are based on how governments regularly overstep their authority.
@XEXXE Stream Probably.
Nice houses.
I’m happy there is a growing middle class in the capital, but the south east where my family is from, looks nothing like this. Most parts of the country as well..
When you realise that it is your people from the south east that owns over 75% of properties in abuja i am sure you are gonna be shocked,ask your people to go back home and invest the money they are investing outside the south east.
@Sly Steel I don’t know what you mean by “your people”. Nobody in my family owns any property in Abuja. My father already built a house for the family, and a private clinic/hospital free for the poor here in Anambra state.
Again what I was referring to was Infrastructure like roads and trains. Hospitals for people who cant afford to travel abroad. Schools for the next generation. All the way from primary and up. Normal things the government is responsible for.. Also less police checkpoints where you have to pay bribes would be nice..
@Sly Steel Also “ask your people to go back home” is extremely racist. I thought Nigeria belonged to all Nigerians..? I guess not..
@ANZ I agree with you bro 💯
@Sly Steel are you igbo?
I live in a developed country, calling that middle class housing is stretching the bar, considering that Nigeria is an undeveloped country. That is more like high class housing to me.
Upper class Africans live like Maharajas. You must not know any rich Africans😂 One of my friends is a wealthy Nigerian and I stayed at their home in Lagos on Victoria Island. These homes look like their servants quarters 😂
@la mulata linda Martinez My family owned a farm in colonized Angola before being expatriated. They recently gone to Luanda to then visit the old lands, and they stayed at a big and luxurious apartment belonging to a very rich person that seems to be well known in my land.
EDIT: Those apartments don’t reach the magnitude of the Luanda apartment, but they sure are not something I would deem as just middle class apartments.
@McLaren F1 GTR def middle class
Those are middle class housing.
@McLaren F1 GTR Then why did you say calling those apartments middle class, is “stretching the bar” that they were “high class for Nigeria” like I said Nigeria has MANY very wealthy people and areas in Abuja and Lagos. One of the richest people in Africa is Dagote of the Dagote Group and he’s is Nigerian. Your comment was snide and a bit ignorant. If you really are AFRICAN you would know better. I live in Europe and MOST people in Europe live in small modest apts. it’s not as technically forward or posh as those apartments 🙄
Country sold to capitalists
No one is asking who are the people behind these homes. Foreign capitalists invest in real estate agency to mask their ownership. Nigeria is being sold out and Nigerians are blindly celebrating
this looks more like upper- than middle class development… especially given the context of the country…
You need to see the upper to understand how things work in Nigeria,upper class in Nigeria dont buy homes in an estate,they build stand alone homes on acres of land
Nigeria…….need these in Detroit……
Not really Detroit has an established housing market that doesn’t really need more homes. Detroit Metro is pretty wealthy overall.
Leave it to the desperate to allow the technocracy takeover
It’ll probably collapse
They should copy the European model of living with efficient public transportation. NOT the american suburban model.
@Sly Steel BAD MODELS
In Africa where there’s a lot of poverty the European model would unfortunately compound that poverty in one area.
@sean1 the1 European model is best for Africa.
@butchfils EU are run by Greta Thurnberg. 🤣🤣
Or even electricity
I mean with all that oli, a worthless country going smart?
You’re thinking upside down….. am so sorry for you……
The days in which civil engineers and architects are known for designing static structures is over.
💒💒💒
0:20 Looks like its a China brand cctv
“Eagle eyed” observation.
dahua.. it is and it’s probably sending footages to ccp servers
Really? What type do they use in your country?
What about the very poor , have and have not will ruin society.
How is NEPA like we have Eskom in South Africa ,while the world is fighting global warming you build an Estate and paved the entire compound
Do something about the corruption , starting with the airports…
Exactly! Shouldn’t do anything about anything unless everything is fixed…SMH 🤦♀️
Perfection should NEVER EVER be the enemy of doing good. Development is a PROCESS and not an event.
may Allah bless all rich people
Why ask for blessings for someone because of being rich? Bless those who help.
@Cat 106 you are not Muslim
What a wack prayer😂😂🤣
I approve this Message! B1✊🏿
Student Of ProfessorBlackTruth
I’ll be the ignorant American to say this… “Wakanda.”
But I do hope these type of developments are a reflection of a growing economy that uplifts their citizens in all social classes.
Even in your country,all social classes have not been uplifted yet.
@Sly Steel That is true. Homeownership is still very difficult to come by and the pathway is still difficult for a majority of people.
@TheCloveart Wakanda forever! 🌍😂😂😂
Please ignore the Naysayers (many of whom are desperately trying to justify being economic refugees abroad). These developments create jobs across a wide spectrum along the entire value chain (unskilled, artisanal, professional and service providers), empowers and up-skills folks, supports livelihoods, generates income and tax revenues that go into social investment (if not nicked by politicians) – and they are therefore one of several ways to best SUSTAINABLY “uplift their citizens in all social classes”.
@oceej Ekwam why would it be unlikely? 🤔
Just off the top of my head, I can think of JOBS created by this development for unskilled laborers, security, gardeners, semi-skilled and artisanal carpenters, painters, plasterers, plumbers, electricians, welders, to professionals such as architects, engineers, surveyors, project managers, financiers, as well as managers, suppliers, subcontractors and such other service providers.
If that is not “uplifting citizens in all social classes”, then what is?!
@TheRealist I wrote a detailed reply but it was deleted. Apologies about that.
Automation is not always luxury.
That junk is constantly needing repair the more you have of it.
Especially in Nigeria where power surge or outage is a regular experience!
Also interesting they make smart houses when Nigeria has an electricity problem.
Africa has the most solar potential in the world, almost all of Africa except the Congolese Basin (Still more than lots of Europe) has high solar potential.
@McLaren F1 GTR these premium homes. They not connected to the national electricity grid that the average Nigerian is connected to so there’s no electricity problem.
@ad stix you can bet those gated communities have an emergency generator or battery and power stabilizer
ülkelerinde o kadar aç insan varken şunlardaki lükse bak
Seniors, children and mom’s FIRST. Tents outside for the rest. Untill More …More….
You planning to break their marriages just to house them?
NO SOLDIE4S IN THAT COUNTRY EVER ON THEY KNEES. LOL 💋
Wealthy Nigerians: Our country is developing. Thanks to Buhari. Poor Nigerians: Hmmm 🤔 Another banga. Stop BOBOING us
This is not new… So many of these houses are in Lagos… This is not the first… Correct your report
Good luck on debugging.
I bet that only corrupt Politicians will live in those “smart Cities”
Smart cities are frying pans
But the poors still represent the majority of the population .. better focus on affordable housing instead of serving the rich people
Cities promote a lot of wealth inequality zied
@zaid, it’s a PRIVATE development. Private developers borrow money from banks (which is NOT free money, but other people’s deposits) to buy land and develop property as their primary source of livelihood (and therefore target profitable market segments to be best able to recoup the money and repay their loans).
Nonetheless, these private real estate developments actually create scores of JOBS for even “the poors (sic) [who] still represent the majority of the population” (albeit not sure how that data is sourced in a country without a census) – from completely unskilled laborers, security, builders, to semi-skilled carpenters, welders, plumbers, plasterers, etc.
Taxes (both corporate and individual) therefrom could then be channeled towards affordable housing, among other social investments. Ultimately, economic activity (such as this development) that creates JOBS, skills, and supports livelihoods, is the best way to SUSTAINABLY serve “the poors (sic) [who] still represent the majority”.
SPYGATE no thanks nazis
Wow…. how fukn convenient … android 6 in my mirror….
Looks really nice, and Nigerians deseve this. But what happens when the electricity goes out? It’s better to adapt to a bit more modest living for most people. I live in Sweden and we have an electric problem right now. At the same time, as an example, many people want to skip cash money! That would be disastrous when the electricity is out – no one could sell or buy anything.
*IT is great but IRL is by far better!*
Just a warning to not make all our mistakes..
What is IRL?
@John O IRL = in real life. The opposite of “Internet living”. Hope you understand what I mean.
Wait till that bedroom cam gets hacked and they blackmail stuff inc.
Ingenuos
Nice to see how the few Nigerian Capitalists are enjoying nice luxurious life style, while 20 million Nigerians go hungry and 30 million of them lack houses, 24 million is an old number LOL.
Free market, providing wealth to the top, while making the poor, poorer.
How many ppl outside of the 1% of the 1% of considerably well paid Nigerian Income Earners can afford this ?
Even if u earn 20 million Naira per annum, It’s still not affordable for more than 90% of these so-called Middle Class Individuals (w/out a side hustle or a parent in politics). So I don’t think the frequently stated title “Middle Class” should be attributed to this. Rather it should be called “Luxurious Smart Homes for the Rich and Mighty of Nigeria’s Capital to serve the Rich”
Who’s stopping you from building homes for the poor? That developer chose to make houses for the rich coz he wants to get the best ROI. If you prefer a lower ROI, why don’t you build houses for the masses ?
The tittle middle class is falsely used here. This houses are affordable for the rich and politicians and not public worker and entrepreneur who are supposedly in the middle class cos they can’t afford a conventional Housing a much more these luxury. The developers are overrating our country when they know for sure the truth. Hope we’ll all reach there soon. I love their spirit!
Middle-class is a wide definition, but the title does not imply that EVERY middle-class person can afford it. No different than if it was in the US or the UK.
Meanwhile, these private real estate developments create SCORES OF JOBS even for poor Nigerians – from completely unskilled laborers, security, builders, semi-skilled carpenters, welders, plumbers, plasterers, electricians, etc., professionals like architects, engineers, managers, to suppliers, subcontractors, service providers, etc. Even the local Buka or Mama Put that feeds the workers on site. Wages from those jobs enables folks to rent/buy houses, send their kids to school, buy food, clothes, etc., and any taxes (corporate taxes from the developer and income taxes from the workers) generated goes into schools, hospitals, public transportation, social housing, security and/or physical infrastructure (roads, rails, etc) – so long they are not stolen by politicians.
Ultimately, economic activity, including developments and construction projects such as these, is how best to create JOBS and SUSTAINABLY lift people out of poverty and broaden the middle-class.
ya…how many of us here in UK can afford any house for that matter…..many adults dont own a home….first world country 🤣….in Nigeria many average people will rent or slowly build their own house
@Blade ManX ‼️
I’m saying congratulations to African people this is amazing ❤️
Nigerian*
Go Africa. About time corruption and foreign thievery slowed down and they can invest in themselves. Big love from Australia.
do our Nigerian friends have running water and electricity most of the day ?
Not many
@Abortion rights would’ve saved us from you It’s ok to want to cry in your studio apartment
If the battery running your brain is not dead then why not?
@lagondo lol
Can ECOWAS foreigners buy? Is the land the house sits on freehold or a lease?
When you buy then it’s yours forever, that’s how it works in Nigeria
Camera inside is a no no
“The anchor of all my dreams is the collective wisdom of mankind as a whole ✍️.”
By. NelsonMandela
From a letter to Senator Douglas Lukhele,
written on Robben Island,
🌍1 August 1970
Thank you.
And May God’s peace 🌍 be upon you all.
I thank you ✍️
🌎🎄🌏☃️🌍
.
Nigeria is Africa American
Lazy
How smart is the place when POWER GOES OUT? for 6 days ? . . .
Power doesn’t “go out” in private estates in Nigeria, because (for better or for worse) they generate their own power rather than rely on public utilities.
Then again, many estates and neighborhoods in Nigeria enter into “willing buyer-willing seller” arrangements with the private electricity distribution companies to pay economic rates for power and in turn receive relatively reliable power supply – rather than the regulated rate that is priced on average almost 40% below the cost of production.
Reality is power infrastructure inherited from NEPA/PHCN by the privatized utilities are mostly OBSOLETE and cannibalized, and without cost-reflective tariffs for power being supplied, there’ll be no capital (equity nor debt – since no bank will finance such poor balance sheets) for investment in upgrading and modernizing power infrastructure in Nigeria.
What Would Be The Price Tag…
Just Asking…
Cities promote a lot of wealth inequality
Best plan, Really apprecited.
Yea .owned by 0.1 percent of Nigerians pfft
Unlike elsewhere, where everything is owned by everyone?! When do I go chilling in the communal homes of Malibu (US) and Mayfair (UK)?! SMH 🤦♀️
These are just fancy gated communities
They’re idiots focusing on a premium housing while 83 millions are poor shame.
Good for them, I’m happy to see progress in Africa. I wish I could same the same in the ghettos of the USA
Lol what
This is stupid….you think those kind of homes will keep armed robbers from coming to kill you? More like armed robber magnets. Also, why stay in somewhere that you don’t own both the unit and the land. These folks have lost their minds.
Their living room is wow
Congratulations
How is more wealth inequality a good thing
Smart home for smart corrupt Nigerian politicians and spoilt rich kids
With china’s investment in Africa overall the country is getting richer at a rapid rate. India is experiencing a similar economic boom at the moment it’s gdp has over taken the uks (still poorer overall because of population though) these countries are emerging economic powers it’s good to see progress
lol china has nothing to do with Nigeria ..we employ them for our rail projects and pay them a lot of money…they get rich off us
@Tosin Ojo China is one of Nigeria’s closest partners…. they are their main trading/outsourcing and China put a lot of money into their infrastructure projects Nigeria is one of the richest countries in the African content that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get help from else where
These are all lies… These smart homes are not for any middle class. There is no middle class in Nigeria. Only the rich and the poor. No person outside the 1% that are rich can afford this. You people should do your findings before posting these things
lol not according to verifiable data…liar
I don’t want anything technology in my Haus apart from the computer and old fashion appliances. It’s like living in a prison cell, it’s like inviting the government in ur Bed because anytime they would access it and u would never know
But they should try and be planting trees pls
wow the most corrupt bunch of thief Nigerian govt finally did.something for.people..
Well done 🇳🇬
All I see are white boxes crammed together. What happens to green areas and some breathing space?
Welcome to the rat race. You’re now owned by the elites, slaves to the banks for the rest of your lives, like the rest of us. I know Africans need and deserve a better life, but this ain’t it. Oh, and now you’re monitored and spied on 24/7 with all that “smart” home stuff.
Many of us in the Western world are ditching the smartphones, otherwise we’re on the road to Digital ID and permanent QR code life, cashless society, and carbon credit scoring on what you spend, permanent surveillance, tracking your every move, and now with the new technology, tracking your sneezes and coughs, and reporting those to the relevant authorities to enable you to get the “right pharmaceutical treatment”. Sounds like this couldn’t be true. Sadly, it is.
Company build under politic this not sharp to show under not this part to make country good to show back new democracy can make money country have their part to build under people life for everything important to build country under the best can show any view to show zakah and more must need manage under a part of true to build and this islam have way to show back country up their part under fully show the name of islam to helping country and helping this world
this is middle class how???
Ply don’t say middle class… do you know how much they cost and what’s the minimum wage in Nigeria? As a Nigerian I can say this is false advertising
Not commendable in my opinion. Last time I checked, Nigeria is still the poverty capital of the world. What happened to creating an enabling enviroment first and foremost for all?
Lol
What is the point of all this if 99% of the population can’t afford it
Ok Google open.
Let me not say , great technology.
Middle class? Let’s first work on the corruption and major security problems the government faces in the north, also let us discuss major infrastructure outside of major city hubs, this is not a sign that nigeria is rising, no this a more evident that the divide between the have and have not is getting bigger, so the poor will have no choice but to eat the rich.
Every country needs both premium and affordable house. Problem comes when you have one and not another.
China is stealing Africa
How come the the Middle East (Asia) countries of OPEC are busy building their countries but the African countries of OPEC is not?
Shame on more are living in sheck
Allah hu akbar