Young Nigerians Turn to Shared Living as Lagos Faces a Housing Crisis

The first thing Afolabi noticed when he arrived at the address his flatmate had sent him was the abundance of space. For two years before, he'd been living in a "very small" self-contained apartment in Egbeda, a suburb in the deeper parts of Lagos mainland. By the end of his first year in that small apartment, he knew he wanted to live somewhere closer to the center of Lagos, and with more space.

"I knew I had to live with someone if I was going to move to a bigger space because when I looked at what I could afford, the math wasn't mathing," he tells OkayAfrica with a light chuckle. Afolabi's self-con move was a stamp of his autonomy entering his mid-20s, and also an act of self-preservation after a former friend outed him as gay to his sister. "In my eyes, it was cozy and affordable, even though I had to take out a loan to buy my bed and the kitchen utensils."

Less than a month after he renewed his rent to stay in his small apartment, Afolabi landed a job that more than doubled his earnings as a call center agent for a loan recovery company. The better earning power strengthened his desire to move to a place where "a door and walls separated my TV and my bed." After six months at his then-new job, Afolabi believed he had saved up a substantial amount to start searching for a room-and-parlour apartment – popularly known as mini-flats.

"My budget could barely cover the rent prices these agents were telling me, and there were still additional fees and the general cost of moving," he says. This was a few months after the removal of petrol subsidies and the naira devaluation policy by President Bola Tinubu, which led to severe inflation, and the prices of house rent were not exempt.

Within a month of his search for a miniflat (a room and parlor apartment), Afolabi reached out to a friend he knew was looking to move out of his parents' house, and they decided to find a two-bedroom apartment. Their budget was "between N1.5 million ($982) and N2 million ($1,310) for [annual] rent and nothing more than N2.5 million ($1,638) for total package." Every Saturday, for about two months, Afolabi and his eventual flatmate met with agents and inspected houses.

A few weeks before the rent on his self-con was due to expire, Afolabi's flatmate got a tip from a friend of a work colleague about an open apartment. "He went there straight from work, and called me to say we should pay immediately, and I did," he says. Afolabi sent his half of the N2.3 million ($1,500) for their apartment in Gbagada without first visiting the place.

Since living together, Afolabi and his flatmate split bills evenly "most of the time." They contribute monthly to grocery shopping, especially for food items; they often cook for and with each other; and Afolabi is comfortable inviting the people he dates over to the sanctuary of his room.

Their annual rent has increased from the initial N1.8 million ($1,180) to a total amount exceeding what they initially paid about a year and a half ago. "A neighbor that moved in earlier this year paid N3.4 million ($2,224) for their total package," he shares. "They basically paid almost N1 million in extra fees."

In Lagos, paying for an apartment involves more than just the annual rent. A raft of fees is included in the "total package," including agent's fee, agreement fee, service charge for utility bills, caution fee, and other special fees, depending on the apartment. The widely scorned drivers of these fees are housing agents, known for inflating prices to increase their commission percentage.

There were four agents involved when Eejechukwu Onochie and her brother found an apartment they wanted to pay for, after weeks of searching. "The agent we were speaking with wasn't the person in charge of the house," she says. "There was the guy directly in charge, and another agent, our agent, was going through. Even when we were paying, another agent wanted to take a cut because he connected two of the agents."

Traditionally, the agent's fee is 10 percent of the annual rent, as well as a standard 10 percent fee paid to the lawyer who draws up the tenancy agreement. These days, it's not uncommon for both fees to climb up to 20 percent each. When I was house-hunting, it was common to hear agents say that the 20 percent is shared between the agent in charge of the house and the other agents attached to the house.

According to reports, Lagos has a housing deficit of between 2 million and 3 million units. As the commercial capital and primary cultural hub of Nigeria, the demand for housing is high, a demand worsened by the cost of living crisis and the city’s overall high expenses. Sharing the financial burden is one way many people are coping.

"We were seeing mini-flats of up to N2.5 million ($1,638) for rent only," Onochie, a community manager and content writer at a startup, tells OkayAfrica, prices that ruled out finding two-bedroom apartments in the central mainland axis they wanted to stay. When they found apartments within their budget, Onochie and her brother also faced tribal prejudice, a common theme in house-hunting in Lagos.

"We eventually went for the one we could afford because, technically, this is the beginning of our lives," she says. "Our mum was even complaining that the place is very small and we should consider looking for another place soon, but I'm not ready for the stress of looking for another place soon. We're just managing and trying to see how we can survive."