Two federal housing estates in Lafia, Nasarawa State Ungwar Rere and Kwandere were inaugurated in 2021 and 2022 under the National Housing Programme. Despite being completed, they remain largely unoccupied and now suffer from disrepair.
Constructed under the Buhari administration’s ₦500 billion social housing initiative with support from agencies such as the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria the estates include 76 units in Ungwar Rere and 100 in Kwandere. Most buildings show signs of neglect, including vandalism, missing roofs, rot, and overgrowth.
Contractors reportedly abandoned sites midway due to payment delays. In some places, roads within estates are now used by women to dry cassava, showing the shift from residential purpose to makeshift community usage.
The federal government has begun new Renewed Hope housing projects like the 250-unit estate in Azuba, Lafia but older estates remain under review. Officials from the FMBN acknowledge that affordability remains a barrier to allocation, though revised pricing and allocation plans are underway.
