Friday, May 18, 2012

Diary of a Lagos Island Property Agent - May 18th



Infrastructural Decay!

Monday
We see so much decay in national monuments like the National Arts Theatre in Lagos. The decay is so bad that a lot of its facilities have been rendered useless.  The National Stadium is another structure that has decayed due to lack of required maintenance and update. A lot of these buildings now resemble war torn bombed out structures.  Even residential accommodation for Army, Police and Naval staff, are not maintained and wear a dejected air of total decay. When you drive past some of these barracks, you have to wonder if they are still inhabited, windows are missing, plumbing and sanitary facilities are nonexistent, the buildings have not been painted in decades, possible since they were built
 Games village, a small estate comprising blocks of flats off Eric Moore street in Surulere, built to accommodate athletes, for the National Sports festival in 1973, is on the verge of collapse and ruin. No maintenance has been carried out on this estate whatsoever.  It is a shame that so many national structures that were built to better the nation, are being left to decay.
Tuesday
Squatters at Apapa had a shock this week when bulldozers moved in to demolish their makeshift homes under the Marine bridge and surrounding areas. Under orders from the Lagos State Government,  7 days notice had been given to squatters, some whom did not take this seriously and were shocked when their temporary homes were destroyed. Apparently some people have lived and conducted businesses under the bridge for over 20yrs! It is not clear if alternative accommodation was provided for these thousands of now homeless people

Wednesday
PHCN seems to be tightening up their work practices and customer service delivery. Their subsidiary company Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) have advertised information in all media detailing how and where consumers can complain and what to expect from their staff. They even go as far as providing names of persons to contact for each area and their phone numbers/ email addresses! Should you not be able to contact any of these regional officers, you can ring the head offices to speak to the manager!  They go further to advice on payment methods and charges for prepaid meters. For further information you can visit their web site www. ekoelectricityng.com .  I was pleasantly shocked by this show of improving customer delivery in a government institution. Well done!

Thursday
I was invited by a developer to come to Ibadan to see some new developments springing up in the city. I decided to brave my phobia for road travel and go along. The state of deterioration of the Lagos ibadan expressway is being accelerated daily. The condition of the road is so bad that I don’t think you can drive a few yards without entering a pot hole. Thousands of tankers are dangerously parked on either side of the road narrowing the road. The government should take hold of the maintenance of this road and do something urgently.

Friday
The development in Ibadan was of a very high standard comparatively to what you would expect in that area. It is a development of 4 bed homes and 2 bed apartments in one of the nicer areas of the city, Agodi. The developer already has experience of developing in Lagos, in the Ikeja, VI and Lekki areas so has transposed his experience and quality to Ibadan.  Of course rental prices are much lower and what you would pay N3m pa for in Lagos, is only going for N1.5 or less there. Ibadan needs more developers like this as the city is largely run down and full of old houses. There is potential here.
Until next week!

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