Many young professionals across Nigeria are moving back into their childhood homes as rising rents and stagnant wages make independent living increasingly unaffordable in Africa’s most populous nation.
A 30-year-old employee of a private firm in Victoria Island, Lagos, earns N300,000 a month but says the city’s housing costs have pushed his young family out of their apartment.
After paying for feeding, transport, and healthcare, the Surulere resident is left with about N60,000 each month, money he hoped to save toward a one-bedroom apartment that costs about N1.5 million a year.
That plan collapsed when his landlord raised the rent by 20 percent, widening the gap between his income and what he needed to secure housing close to work in a city where landlords often demand one to two years’ rent upfront.
“I haven’t really settled the debt I took on paying the rent, and another review has been made,” Abiodun Ali said. “At this rate, I might never afford my own place.”
Unable to keep up, Abiodun moved back to his parents’ home in Ikorodu with his wife and their two-year-old daughter, joining a growing number of young workers retreating to family houses as Lagos’ housing costs outpace incomes.
That is the fate of many Nigerians, particularly the young, who continue to face soaring rent and weakening spending power.
Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital of more than 20 million people, has seen rents surge in recent years as construction costs soar and a housing deficit estimated at 29 million units deepens nationwide.
According to a recent survey by BusinessDay, 72 percent of respondents spend between four and six months of their annual salary on house rent, amounting to about 40 percent of their income.
Sulaimon Okediji, a grade level 8 education officer with the Lagos State government, earns about N140,000 a month but pays N600,000 for his room-and-parlour self-contained.
The 28-year-old English teacher spends roughly N60,000 on transport, assuming he follows the government-provided bus, and about the same on feeding, leaving the yet-to-be-married tutor with a meagre N20,000 to save for rent.
But an upward review of his rent to N800,000 has stretched Okediji to the limit, prompting him to return to his empty nest after five years of being independent.
“I can’t keep up with the rent,” he said wistfully. “Even if I take on more tutorials and home lessons, it would never be enough. I have to return home and rethink my next move.”
Nigeria is still battling with climbing prices, even though recent data show inflation cooled to 15.1 percent in January. Skyrocketing prices of key construction materials like cement meant homeowners had to adjust their rent to reflect current economic realities.
For Mercy Okoh, who just concluded her mandatory National Youth Service Corps in Lagos, the situation was rather dire. Her single-room apartment in the Agege axis of the state doubled to N350,000 a year in what she described as a “callous act” from her landlord.
“I had told them at home that I wasn’t coming back after my service year,” Okoh, 23, who hails from Abia said. “But the hike in rent has dashed my hopes of getting a better life here in Lagos.”
She, however, vowed to return immediately if she got a well-paying job that could pay off her rent “with no hassle.”
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