By joshua 
Don Advocates Data-driven Housing System, Long-term Tenure In Nigeria
By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin city
A Professor of Applied Valuation at the Federal University Oye Ekiti, FUOYE, Prof. Isaac Olatunji, has called for a radical transformation of Nigeria’s housing delivery system through data-driven housing choices and long-term tenancy models.
Delivering the 24th Inaugural lecture of FUOYE titled “Housing Care and Support for Nigerians: Exploring the Optimality Dimension to a Critical Real Estate Decision” at the Victor Ndoma-Egba Auditorium, Olatunji argued that housing delivery in Nigeria must move beyond mere shelter provision to a scientifically guided system capable of guaranteeing citizens’ well-being and economic stability.
The don introduced what he described as the “OPTi Revolution,” a housing decision-support framework built around the Optimality Index (OPTi), which he likened to the global Moody’s rating system.
According to him, the system mathematically balances income, transport costs, commuting distance, housing quality and family activity patterns to help Nigerians make informed housing choices.
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 successive government housing programmes, poverty levels in Nigeria had continued to rise from 54.4 per cent in 2007 to an estimated 63 per cent in 2025, insisting that poor housing and urban poverty were inseparable.
The professor disclosed that research findings showed that about 65 per cent of Abuja’s vulnerable middle class were at risk of “housing poverty” due to hidden costs arising from poor housing choices, fuel price hikes and transportation burdens.
He also revealed that it takes an average middle-income family in Abuja between 15 and 18 months to secure suitable accommodation, describing the delay as a major drain on national productivity.
As part of his recommendations, the scholar called for the institutionalisation of Residential Accommodation Procurement (RAP) counselling under the guidelines of the Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria and the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers.
He urged Estate Surveyors and Valuers to evolve from conventional “house agents” into professional housing procurement counsellors capable of deploying ICT-based tools and Excel-driven analytics to guide families toward optimal housing decisions.
He further advocated the adoption of long-term tenancy arrangements ranging from 16 to 33 years, saying such tenure security would encourage tenants to invest in housing modernisation and environmental improvements.
According to him, integrating the RAP model with long-term tenancy would create a win-win outcome for citizens, professionals and government by improving housing well-being, creating wealth and reducing urban poverty.
The don also urged the Federal Government to institutionalise the OPTi Decision-Support System for both public and private sector housing counselling as part of efforts to actualise the Sustainable Development Goals.
Reacting to the lecture, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Strategic Partnerships, Research, Innovation and Linkages of the university, Prof. Babatunde Afolabi, commended Olatunji for highlighting the deep-rooted challenges confronting Nigeria’s housing sector.
Afolabi noted that the lecturer’s research findings indicated a national 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.
He expressed confidence that the recommendations contained in the lecture would significantly assist policymakers and stakeholders in addressing Nigeria’s housing crisis.