A Guide To Building Your Own Home In Nigeria

Owning a home in Nigeria is a significant step in life and confers a certain form of status and prestige but the process can be strenuous if it’s not done right. Many Nigerians would rather build than buy a house because of the prestige attached to the process. However, no matter the avenue that you take in owning your home, the end goal is the status conferral.

In spite of the status and prestige, many are not desirous of building a house from scratch, this is because it is common knowledge that it is not the easiest activity to take on. This is due to many reasons not limited to charges imposed every now and then to being ripped off by labourers. In this article, we offer a simplified process and guide to building your own house the right way.

Tips to guide you in building your house

If you’re looking to build right, here are a few things to put on a checklist and improve the efficiency of your process.

1. Make a realistic budget

Building your own home is an investment and as such it is cost intensive. While the extent of the cost depends on the type of building you intend to build,  it generally costs a lot of money to build a house. To guide your spending and track your expenses, it is wiser to make a budget before you kick start the process of building your own home. This budget has to be as realistic as possible, and the best way to do this is to work with estimates obtained from the current prices of building materials and reconcile it with the picture of your proposed home in your mind. What this budget helps you ascertain is that you are financially buoyant enough to commit to that process of building your house at that time.

2. Purchase a suitable plot of land (if you don’t have one already)

A house is built on a piece of land and it will be impossible to talk about building a home without discussing the availability of land. If you do not already have a land, then purchasing a land is imperative. A land can be purchased directly from the landowner or from a real estate development company. The land to be purchased has to suit the type of building to be erected on it or the picture of your ideal home in terms of location, community and structure of the environment. All of these should be put into consideration before purchasing a land. It is also important that the land be inspected before it is bought. An inspection helps you place your expectations and the proposed land of interest side by side to determine if it is the right choice for you.

3. Hire an architect to produce a design

If there’s a picture in your head of what your ideal home looks like, it may be hard to communicate the picture of this home to the contractors responsible for building. The right way to approach this then is to hire an architect who can put that idea on paper and structure the design for effective execution. 

4. Get a more accurate estimate

After an architect has been hired, the house building process becomes more defined and is easier to process. What this results in is a more accurate estimation of what it will cost to build your own home. Upon getting actual figures, your previous budget can then be adjusted to reflect the new adjustments.

5. Obtain building plan approval from government

Upon getting the costs sorted, it is now time to begin building your own home. To make the process a lot easier and without any risk, it is required that a building approval is obtained from the government. The government offers a sort of permit that communicates an approval to build and develop. This building plan approval is also referred to as permit form and differs from regular title documents .It is issued across all 36 states across Nigeria. For example, in Lagos State, the permit is obtained from the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) before carrying out any physical development in Lagos State. This is in line with the Section 27(1) of the Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law 2010 in Lagos State.

6. Purchase Building Materials

Since the approval to build has been gotten, building can now begin in full force. What however is a building without the right building materials? Building materials must be paid attention to before purchase is made, substandard buildings are usually caused by a mix between a poor building structure and poor building materials. The right purchase materials to a large extent help you get a quality home so attention must be given to purchasing the right building materials.

Choosing the right builder, contractor or developer

Now that you have gotten your land and building materials, the next thing is to get a builder, contractor or developer to work magic on converting all of these into your home. The outcome of the process is largely dependent on who builds the house. A right contractor takes time and takes in consideration all details that make the building your ideal home.

Putting it all together, with enough attention to the process, the home building process regarded as an Herculean task can become a simpler, smoother and enjoyable journey. These tips help you simplify the process and serve as a simple guide to getting things done right. A major problem many individuals have is securing a land in a top tier location that is affordable and still secure. At Sterling Homes, we take this stress off the hands of our clients, we offer lands for sale across our various locations with excellent buy to build offers. These lands come with all required title deeds and permits. We guarantee an ease in building your own home on one of our lands, join us today.