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Housing Grants Lagos Nigeria - Free Grants For Housing Tips

Housing grants Lagos Nigeria - Grants for housing can come from one of three sources . . . the company where you work, the federal government, or state government. When you receive this housing grants, what do you do with it?

The wise course will be to invest it in Nigeria real estate and watch your investment grow over time. Unfortunately, many have not taken this course of action. Instead, some of them used the grants for housing they received to . . .

buy more expensive cars

invest in their pet project, say, a business idea or

Marry a new wife . . . the concubine they've been having secret affair with for years

Several years down the road, those who misused the housing grants they received had course to regret their actions.

Perhaps you can't understand why anyone will do such a ridiculous thing. Perhaps you think that's impossible. But hey, I have seen this happen with a couple of people and I too wondered what the hell was wrong with them. But now I understand their plight.

They could not see beyond the tip of their nose. Let me explain.

When people receive grants for housing from the company they work for or from the government, the amount they receive is more often than not unable to buy the kind of house or home they desire. Since that is the case, many are tempted to spend the money for other interests. Let me give you a real life example.

A certain blue chip company in Nigeria had a policy of subsidizing the cost of buying a home for management staff who have spent up to ten years in the companies employment. With this policy, the management staff who was at least 10 yrs in the business as a full time employee applies for a housing loan.

The company processes the loan application and determines if the manager qualifies to receive a housing loan. If he does, management approves the loan.

Here's a breakdown of what the policy entailed.

The company guarantees the loan with the bank. Essentially, this meant that if the staff leaves the company's employment before paying off the loan, the company will pay the employee's terminal benefits (which is sizeable) to the bank. The bank deducts the loan balance and interest and release what is left to the disengaged or retired employee.

The company went a step further.

The company paid 70 percent of the loan interest while the employee paid only 30 percent.

Another good part to the housing grant or loan was this: The employee was not required to follow a monthly repayment plan. Instead, the company calculated the annual housing allowance for the employee and paid it upfront to the bank (note that this company pays housing allowance upfront to management staff whether they have loan or not. This usually happens around February of each year).

Bottom line.

The management staff who had spent 10 years of his life working for the company had the opportunity to own a home, real estate anywhere in Nigeria, without the hassles of conventional loan facilities.

The only limit to the loan amount was the requirement by the bank that no individual can take a loan with annual deductions more than the annual housing allowance of the individual. This makes perfect sense because the loan was been paid for by the individual's housing allowance.

Obviously, this meant that the size of the individual's loan or grant for housing was dependent on the individual's annual housing allowance which in turn was a percentage of his annual salary.

In simple terms . . . the more you earned annually, the bigger the loan amount you could collect. And the higher your chances of shopping for and buying big houses. The temptation is this:

In situations where the housing grant or loan was less than substantial, individuals opted to invest the money in something other than a home with the hope that they could grow the money and then buy a property in Lagos Nigeria or somewhere else in the country sometime later.

Smart move.

Unfortunately, not many folks eventually get round to doing that.

My advice?

Go for small houses if the grants for housing you receive cannot buy a big property. Alternatively, you can pair with a colleague to buy a big house and split it in two. That was exactly what a friend did.

He paired with a colleague and bought a twin duplex of 4 bedroom each within a plot of land. The property had a valid C of O. They then applied for governor's consent officially splitting the property between them legally.

This particular case is interesting because even when they combined their housing grants, it was still not enough to buy the twin duplex. Fortunately, they each were members of the company's cooperative society. They went to the president of the society and laid bare their challenge. With his help, they each secured a loan to augment the grants for housing they received from the company.

Today, they each smile as they look back at the challenge of those tough times. They smile ecstatically as they relate the story because the Lagos real estate they now own has more than doubled in value compared to the price they bought it.

In comparison, their colleagues who opted not to buy a home then because the grants for housing was small are right now gnashing their teeth.

Get the gist?

Don't trade your grants for housing for anything else. It's a wonderful opportunity to own a home. So invest the grants for housing you receive in buying a home no matter how small that home is. You will thank me later.

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