BUILDING A LOW COST HOUSE IN NIGERIA (PART 1)

    For most Nigerians especially nowadays where costs of commodities have been declared to be at an all time high rate due to the drop in crude oil revenues, paying rent has never been so difficult and the landlords have in no way assisted in making things better.
The cost of getting an apartment alone especially in the major states of Nigeria has doubled from what it used to be in the last 3 years. Despite this, the standard of living has in no way risen, but the cost of living on the other hand has always been on a continuous increase.

    In order for home owners to meet their cost of living, landlord have decided too transfer their financial needs towards the tenants by using the cost of building materials in the market as at the current market price to determine what the cost of their apartment will be even though the house had been building 10, 20 or 30 years ago.

 All this scenarios coupled with the failure of the government to provide adequate housing unit or at least create an agency whose aim is to prevent indiscriminate increment of house rent has made every Nigerian eager to building his or her own home which is what should be on the minds of a smart Nigerian. But first, how do you go about it?, Can you even afford to build? what is the current market price of building materials Nigeria as at today? Where should you build your home considering your level of income?, all these questions and more will be explained below.

WHAT IS THE CURRENT MARKET PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIALS IN NIGERIA?

This should be the first question on your mind as a person aspiring to build a home. and it has to with matching your cost of income to the cost of each item you will be needing. You really don't need an expert to advise you on what you need to build a house, since the materials used on site are pretty clear to see as and are obvious from uncompleted buildings you must have seen over time. But nonetheless, below are lists of the major materials you need;

1. Block
2. Cement
3. Iron rod
4. Sharp sand, Gravel, Filling sand (Red sand) and Plaster sand
5. Tools for the labourers and Bricklayers i.e. Cement bowl, shovel, Spade, diggers, cutlass, plumb, among others.

Floor plan for a 3 bedroom plan

How many blocks will you use? : Now for the blocks you need about 3000 pieces (Dinning area inclusive) for a block of 3 bedroom flat and 3500 block if you intend to go for an en-suite i.e. all bedrooms with its own toilet and bathroom plus one visitors toilet attached to the sitting room. This is the standard for a 3 bedroom which is ideal for a family home in Nigeria as of today. A 9-inches block cost about 140 to 150 naira now depending on the area you are buying from while A 6 inches block cost between 120 to 130 naira.  One bedroom flat will hence cost about 1500 blocks, therefore the arithmetic is easier to work out now by multiplying the number of block by the cost of each size of the block.

Note: extra designs on the building is not included in the estimation.

How many bags of cement will you use? : When it comes to using cement in building, most average Nigerians try to minimise usage to save cost, but the truth is in the long run, you will spend more time and money patching up your house 10 to 20 years after completion. The house will not be strong enough and this has led to rise in the house which have collapsed recently. Therefore my advise is to use a minimum of 110 bags of cement for a 3 bedroom flat and about 45 bags for one bedroom flat. This is valued in the market at 1600 naira. Now the issue here is buying the cement. firstly, my advise is not to buy all the cements your engineer said was going to complete the house. Ensure this is being bought gradually otherwise you will realise that most of your materials, cements inclusive will be missing from site without any trace. So its better you buy them gradually and monitor the usage before buying more.

Iron rods: The length of the iron rod to be used in case of 3 bedroom flat for instance is just 12 feet long but if you are planning to build a storey building that another ball game entirely and you will need an engineer of an expert to measure the size of the building and do an estimate of the area you intend to deck. Below are prices of the iron rods currently.

iron rod

22mm of iron sell for 5,500 Naira 
20mm sell for 3,800 Naira
16mm for 2,550 Naira
12mm for 8,500 Naira 
 8mm for 700 Naira

Sand and Gravels: Sand and gravels are usually carried and sold by Tipper trucks and a Tipper load of sand goes for about 10,000 naira per coach while double is 18000 naira, A tipper load of gravel sells for 12,000 naira a coach.

The next write up will focus on starting the foundation and the roofing of the house.