The rental system here in Lagos is quite frankly ridiculous. To live in a place of similar comparison to UK standards in a relatively secure and comfortable location should be in areas like the lekki peninsular or Oniru estate, which are 'up and coming' areas. Rental prices vary but increase year on year- highbrow locations such as Ikoyi or Victoria Island can be twice the price of the peninsular. Fair enough, if your earning a reasonable salary or so I thought:
The problem and it is a large one is that rental must be paid for two years upfront in cash. A monthly charge is pretty much non existent. When prices start from Around 3 million naira per year you can see the issue. For those un familiar with naira that's around 12 thousand pounds sterling. Yet it doesn't stop there: one must then suffer the charges of your property agent who takes a maximum of 10% of the rental fee, there is then a 10% legal fee to be paid.
So just to recap:
3 million naira per yer
X 2 years = 6 million
10% agency fee & 10% legal fee = 1.2 million naira
So that's around 7.2 million naira or 29 thousand pounds sterling to be paid upfront. After that all you have to find is money to buy a generator to power the house when not if the electric fails and of course your furniture. Only then are you able to live in an approximate comfort to your life in England.
And so I realised it was a little unrealistic to manage to rent if I wanted to live in as much comfort as the UK. Thanks to my wife's family I was most welcome at their place and for a number of reasons have realised that I will be here for a while longer!
It's a nightmare. My wife and I were fortunate that each of our employers offered housing, so we didn't need to deal with that. If we had to pay $30k pounds up front to get a flat, we'd have been living in someone's garage :-)
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