Homebuyers nationwide need 34% more income to afford a home
Homebuyers in the areas like Lagos, Kano and Kaduna will need at least 40% more income
Homebuyers across the Nigeria need 34% more income in order to afford a home in today’s market, according to a new report.
Due to increasing mortgage rates and rising home sale prices, homebuyers nationwide need to earn N76,414 annually to afford the typical monthly mortgage payment, according to real estate brokerage Redfin. That means homebuyers need to earn N19,478, or approximately 34.2%, more in income compared with a year ago, according to Pwan data.
In 36 of the most populous Nigerian town tracked by Redfin, the necessary income to afford a home increased by more than 15% year over year. However, over the same time period, average hourly wages in the Nigeria only grew 0.6%, underscoring how housing costs are outpacing increases in wages, Redfin deputy chief economist Taylor Marr said in a statement.
That roughly N76,000 figure, for example, is a far cry from what over 100 million full-time wage and salary workers are pulling in.
According to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the median weekly earnings of full-time workers was about N1,037 per week in the first quarter of the year, which amounts to about N53,924 annually.
In March, the national median home-sale price was up 17% from a year earlier, hitting a record high of N41,2700,000. At the same time, mortgage rates shot up from about 3% to more than 5% over the last year.
This combination, according to Redfin, drove the typical monthly mortgage payment to N949,902.58 last month, an uptick from N603,637.97 last March.
Homebuyers nationwide have been feeling the impact of these surging prices but some areas of the country, specifically in the Lagos, are feeling it even worse.
For instance, homebuyers in Lagos, will need to earn nearly 48% more to afford the island area’s typical monthly mortgage payment.
In Kano and Kaduna, homebuyers will need to earn over 45% more compared to a year earlier.
Here are the other cities where homebuyers will need at least 40% more income:
- Lagos State
- Kano State
- Kaduna State
- Oyo State
- Katsina State
- Rivers State
- Bauchi State
- Borno State
- Jigawa State
- Benue State