Like Lagos, Like Osogbo: Why Are House Rents Rising in Osogbo?

Biola hung up the call and sat in a wooden chair outside a POS shop, where he was to withdraw money. He gasped and stretched his neck before dropping his head. He was visibly tired, and it took the voice of the POS agent to bring him back to life.

“Egbon, you wan withdraw?” Of course, he wanted to withdraw money to go home. He had left home in the morning after receiving a call from one of the numerous house agents he’d been contacting in recent weeks. “If you can meet me at Capital now, there’s one 2-bed that is really nice and cheap,” the agent said. Biola knew how fast the apartment could be gone if he didn’t hurry. It was a Saturday, so there were no work worries. He wore a pair of pants and a shirt and jumped on Korope, the popular blue buses in Osogbo.

When he got there, the apartment was located deep inside the area. From Ofatedo, where he lived, the bike man charged over 2,000 naira because they kept cutting through corners and hidden routes. He knew he couldn’t live here, not just because of the transportation cost to the main road or the rent itself, but because it was far from his workplace. He’s a banker.

“So how much is the rent?” he asked. “Just 600k,” the agent responded. Two years ago, that amount would get you a well-furnished three- or four-bedroom apartment, including agent and agreement fees. For that particular house, Biola would need to repaint the apartment, fix the plumbing, and still pay almost half of the house rent for the agreement and agent fees.

“I just knew I won’t take the apartment,” he told me. “I don’t know what ridiculously increased house rents in Osogbo.” Recently, residents, young people especially, have been lamenting how difficult it’s become to secure decent and affordable accommodation. On social media and in everyday conversations, you’ll hear complaints about how a room that used to go for 60,000 naira now costs over 100,000 naira, most times without any significant upgrades. Landlords blame the rising cost of materials. For many working-class youth like Biola, it’s becoming unrealistic to upgrade to a better space quickly.

“I really just wanted a better place. I was targeting areas with better electricity, and it’s funny how Band A electricity has become one of the reasons houses are now expensive. I mean, sheybi na me go still buy the units?” Biola said. “One agent told me we can’t still compare the house rents to Lagos. Na Lagos I dey?” he continued.

Lagos could be one of the factors that influenced the rising house rents in Osogbo. Many house agents, who are mostly unregistered, observe house rents in other states, mostly Lagos, and adopt them in Osogbo. “We also know people from Lagos are now relocating to Osogbo,” Alfa, a house agent who wants to be recognised as that, told me. Several people are relocating out of Lagos.

However, beyond the exorbitant fees that house agents charge, like agency fees, caution fees, service charges, and agreements, Alfa told me agents also influence how much landlords charge for a house.

“I used to manage four house properties for one landlady. For many years, I did not increase the house rent. This year, I took an agent colleague for a house inspection through his client. I don’t know how he met the landlady behind my back. The agent told her he could help increase the rent, and that was how I lost the property. Sometimes, it’s the greediness of some house agents that increases the house rents.”

Osogbo and Osun State at large simply don’t generate the kind of economic pull that would justify such high housing costs. The state has no surplus revenue, little industrial activity, and relies mostly on federal transfers to survive. Yet residents are being asked to pay rents modelled on Lagos-level economies, despite lacking Lagos’s industries and corporate offices.

In May, some young people paraded in a lorry with loudspeakers to protest against the rising rents. This shows just how the crisis is affecting residents and how tired they have become. With no stable jobs, it’s hard to justify why rents in Osogbo are climbing at this pace.

According to a member of the Osun State House of Assembly, Kofoworola Adewunmi, the Osun State Estate Agency Regulatory Authority Bill 2024 had already been passed. “The bill is seeking to control the abnormal charges by the agents and the landlords,” he said.

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