Will states’ tenancy laws rein in rent hikes, abuses?

By : Victor Gbonegun Date: 12 October 2026 4:00am WAT

With rising rents pushing affordable housing out of reach for many Nigerians, many states are enacting tenancy laws to regulate rents, define landlord-tenant relationships, and curb abuses by property agents. Experts welcome the move to curb fraud and protect tenants, but caution against regulations that could discourage investment, urging governments to balance renters’ protection with landlords’ legitimate interests, VICTOR GBONEGUN reports.

Nigeria’s Rental Crisis: Can New State Tenancy Laws Fix the Housing Market?

Finding a decent, affordable place to live in Nigeria’s major cities has become a nightmare for the average middle- and low-income earner. Driven by a massive housing deficit, skyrocketing construction costs, and inflation, rental prices in urban centers have hit staggering heights:

• Self-contained apartments: ₦800,000 to ₦2 million per year
• One-bedroom flats: ₦2.5 million to ₦3 million per year
• Two- to three-bedroom apartments: ₦3 million to ₦5 million per year

But the crisis isn’t just about the numbers on the price tag. It is also about systemic exploitation. Tenants are routinely forced to pay two to three years of rent upfront, hit with arbitrary hikes, or faces illegal evictions. Worse, unregulated “roadside agents” frequently scam desperate house-hunters by tacking on wild “total package” fees that double the actual rent—or outright disappearing with their money.

To curb these predatory practices and restore order, several state governments are stepping in with strict new tenancy laws. But can legislation actually fix a broken market?

Here is a look at what states are doing, how the laws affect you, and why experts warn these bills might face a rocky road.

The Crackdown: How States are Regulating Landlords and Agents

Over the last few years, states like Abia, Ebonyi, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun, Anambra, and Enugu have passed or initiated new rental regulations. While the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has debated similar measures, it has yet to pass a formal law.

For the states moving forward, the new rules directly target the market’s biggest pain points:

• Caps on Upfront Rent: Restricting landlords from demanding more than one year of advance rent.
• Capping Agent & Legal Fees: Stopping agents from inventing random fees by placing a hard percentage cap on commissions.
• Tenant Protections: Outlawing forceful evictions, banning landlords from cutting off utilities (electricity/water) to harass tenants out, and mandating written receipts.
• Dispute Tribunals: Setting up specialized, fast-track rent courts to resolve landlord-tenant issues quickly without dragging out for years in traditional courts.

A Look at Specific State Penalties:

• Abia State: The newly passed Abia Property and Tenancy Bill sets up a regulatory authority, caps agency fees at 5%, and penalizes unlicensed agents with fines up to ₦10 million. Fraudulent agents face 6 to 7 years in prison.
• Ebonyi State: Has taken a highly aggressive stance, passing a bill that caps all real estate agency fees at a strict 2% of the total transaction value.
• Kogi State: Is currently working on its Tenancy Law 2025, collaborating with professional estate institutions to establish a compliance board.

The Catch: Why Experts Fear These Laws Will Fail

While these laws sound fantastic for tenants on paper, real estate professionals and economists are raising serious warning flags. Many point out that Nigeria has tried “rent control” before, and it historically fails for a few reasons:

1. The Law of Supply and Demand Always Wins

As long as there is a massive housing shortage, a piece of paper cannot stop prices from rising. If ten desperate families are fighting over one available apartment, the landlord holds all the power. Tenants will willingly bypass the legal caps and secretly pay whatever the landlord asks just to secure a roof over their heads.

2. Squeezing Investors Shrinks Supply

Building houses in Nigeria is incredibly expensive. Private developers rely on loans with double-digit interest rates and pay high costs for statutory approvals. If state laws make it impossible for landlords to recover their capital and earn a reasonable return, investors will simply stop building rental properties. When supply drops further, prices will naturally shoot even higher.

3. You Can’t Control What You Don’t Own

As Professor Olurotimi Kemiki, a prominent expert in Estate Management, points out: it is practically impossible for the government to successfully dictate prices for commodities it does not own. If the state doesn’t build the houses, it has very little leverage to tell private citizens how to price them.

The Real Solution: Moving Beyond Band-Aids

To truly solve the housing crisis, experts argue that state governments need to stop using tenancy laws as a quick band-aid and instead focus on structural economic fixes:

1. Build Public Housing: The government cannot rely entirely on private individuals to supply housing. Redirecting state funds from massive infrastructure projects into building actual, affordable public residential estates would instantly ease the supply deficit.
2. Provide Affordable Mortgages: Nigeria needs functional, long-term mortgage systems that allow average citizens to buy homes over time, shifting the pressure away from the cutthroat rental market.
3. Balance the Scale: A good law must protect both sides. While tenants need safety from fraud, landlords also need a fast, functional legal way to evict destructive or non-paying occupants without long court delays.

Tenancy laws are a step toward transparency, and cracking down on fraudulent, unlicensed agents is heavily necessary. However, until Nigeria aggressively builds more houses and drives down construction costs, the balance of power will likely remain in the hands of the highest bidder.

This story was originally reported by The Guardian.