A Professor of Applied Valuation at the Federal University Oye Ekiti, Prof. Isaac Olatunji, has called for a radical overhaul of Nigeria’s housing delivery system through the adoption of data-driven housing decisions and long-term tenancy arrangements.
Olatunji made the call while delivering the institution’s 24th inaugural lecture titled, “Housing Care and Support for Nigerians: Exploring the Optimality Dimension to a Critical Real Estate Decision,” held at the Victor Ndoma-Egba Auditorium of the university.
The don said Nigeria’s housing policy must move beyond the traditional focus on shelter provision to a system capable of guaranteeing citizens’ welfare and economic stability.
He unveiled a housing decision-support framework known as the “OPTi Revolution,” built around what he described as the Optimality Index.
According to him, the framework is designed to guide Nigerians in making informed housing decisions by balancing factors such as income, transportation costs, commuting distance, housing quality and family lifestyle patterns.
He said, “Just as a GPS tells you the fastest route, OPTi tells you the best utility home.
“We can keep building 700,000 houses yearly, but if we do not fix how end-users choose them and how long they can stay in them, we are simply building magnets of despair instead of magnets of hope.”
Olatunji lamented that despite several government housing interventions over the years, poverty levels in the country had continued to rise.
He noted that poverty increased from 54.4 per cent in 2007 to an estimated 63 per cent in 2025, stressing that poor housing conditions and urban poverty were closely linked.
The professor disclosed that findings from his research showed that about 65 per cent of Abuja’s vulnerable middle class were exposed to “housing poverty” due to hidden costs associated with poor housing choices, rising fuel prices and transportation expenses.
He added that an average middle-income family in Abuja spends between 15 and 18 months searching for suitable accommodation, describing the situation as a major setback to national productivity.
“As part of the solution, Residential Accommodation Procurement counselling should be institutionalised under the supervision of the Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria and the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers,” he said.
Olatunji also urged Estate Surveyors and Valuers to move beyond their traditional role as house agents and become professional housing procurement counsellors using ICT tools and data analytics to guide families in securing suitable homes.
The don further advocated tenancy arrangements spanning between 16 and 33 years, arguing that long-term tenancy would encourage occupants to invest in modernising and improving their living environments.
“Integrating the RAP model with long-term tenancy will create a win-win situation for citizens, professionals and government by improving housing well-being, creating wealth and reducing urban poverty,” he added.
He also called on the Federal Government to institutionalise the OPTi Decision-Support System in both public and private sector housing counselling as part of efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
In his remarks, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Strategic Partnerships, Research, Innovation and Linkages of the university, Prof. Babatunde Afolabi, commended Olatunji for drawing attention to the challenges confronting the nation’s housing sector.
Afolabi said the lecturer’s findings revealed that Nigeria currently faces a housing deficit estimated at about 15 million units.
“He has been able to highlight the major challenges in the Nigerian housing industry. By his estimate and research over the years, there is about a 15 million housing deficit, which means there is a lot to be done as a nation to bridge the gap,” he said.
