24/08/2026
Live with your parents or cousins but Who Will Help the Parents Paying the Rent?
Lagos Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat has advised young Lagosians not to feel pressured to rent expensive apartments, suggesting that unmarried young people could live with their parents, cousins or share accommodation while building their finances.
He also said spending more than 40% of one's income on rent is too high. On paper, it sounds like financial advice. But is it really an adequate response from government to Lagos' housing crisis?
A young Nigerian spends years in school, graduates, searches for a job, finally gets one, starts earning ₦100,000 or ₦150,000 a month, and wants to move into a decent apartment.
Then comes the reality. Rent is too high. Food is expensive. Transportation is expensive. Building materials are expensive.
And somehow, the solution being offered is, Go and live with your parents.
But what about the parents? Are they not paying rent too?
Are they not struggling with food, electricity, school fees, transportation and other family responsibilities?
Some parents are themselves living in one-room apartments or overcrowded accommodation because they cannot afford anything better.
So when their adult children return home, the housing problem has not disappeared. The burden has simply moved from one household member to another, and this is where the government needs to look beyond personal budgeting advice.
If rent is too expensive, why not aggressively increase the supply of genuinely affordable housing? Why not use government land to develop low-cost housing? Why not reduce unnecessary costs involved in construction? Why not address the high cost of building materials? Why not improve transportation so affordable housing outside the city does not come with unbearable commuting costs? Why not strengthen rent regulation and crack down harder on excessive agency charges and arbitrary increases? Why not expand rent to own schemes and make affordable mortgages accessible to ordinary workers?
Lagos Government already knows housing is a problem. It has housing programmes, budgets and policy instruments at its disposal. So the question is not whether Lagosians can learn to endure expensive rent.
The bigger question is: Why should ordinary Lagosians have to keep adjusting to a housing crisis that government has the power to help fix? Young people are not asking for mansions in Ikoyi. They are not demanding luxury apartments in Lekki.
Most are simply asking for a decent, safe and comfortable place to live after spending years studying and working. Is that really too much to ask?
Yes, people should live within their means. Yes, saving money is important. Yes, sharing accommodation can sometimes be a smart decision.
But personal survival strategies should never become a substitute for public policy. The citizen should not always be the one adjusting. Sometimes, the system needs to adjust.
What do you think? Should young Lagosians simply learn to manage the high cost of rent, or should government be doing much more to make decent housing genuinely affordable?
