PUBLIC ESTATE MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA
Public estate management is emerging as a managerial science today (Kyle and Baird, 1995). It transcends beyond the role of rent collector (Li, 1997). Managing a residential property involves establishing goals, objectives and policies and implementation of strategies to achieve those goals and objectives.
Singh (1994, 1996) posited that residential property management is an activity that seeks to control interests in property owner and particular purpose for which the property is held. Wong (1999) considers residential property management as the work carried out to manage and maintain the development including its facilities at the level that will retain or enhance the value of the residential property, create a safe, functional and conducive living environment for occupants, keep or restore every facility in efficient working order and in good state of repair, and project a good appearance or image for the development. Ismail (1996) regards residential property management responsibility as including all the necessary making to ensure the economic and physical vitality of residential property assets.
The management of public estate assets particularly poses unique form of problems ranging from over inflation of invoices, corruption, nepotism, and awarding of contract works to contractors not knowledgeable about the jobs to be carried out. This array of issues and others, calls for monetization policy of the Federal Government, where all government properties are transferred to the private entities few years ago.
Many public estate developments and their post-construction management are undertaken with the intent of accomplishing immediate social, economic, financial and aesthetic benefits or returns, but they are executed with minimal concern for sustaining these benefits thereafter (Ihuah and Fortune, 2013; Ihuah and Eaton, 2013). The sustainability of public estate projects after completion is a concern that should not be overlooked in the built environment since housing estates provide shelter to human beings. It is also one amongst the four basic human needs that harmonize the other basic needs through the opportunity of providing comfort, security and safety to people.
The public housing estates prominence is sustained with appropriate post-construction management and other beneficial sustainability issues are tackled with respect to the built environment, economic growth and enhanced development in a country (Ihuah and Eaton, 2013). Therefore, the imperative to ensure that public estates returns are continually accomplished and enjoyed by all stakeholders should be the objective for any development organisation to achieve.
The challenges be devilling management of public estates vary with different context and analytical perceptions. The problems of chronic financial crisis, poor maintenance, lack of manpower and strained relationship between public estates residents and the management has been mentioned by (Davidson 1999) as recurring themes of public estate management issues, while Okpala (1977), identified bureaucracy corruption.
This implies that, there is need to look at the management of existing Public Housing Estates in order to restore them back to habitable condition through regular management and maintenance so that the intensity building management becomes higher with its age especially in the face of climatic change and its negative and adverse effects on the building itself, the facilities and the physical environment for sustainable development.
This project work therefore, examines the management of public estate in Niger State with a particular interest in Zuma Housing Estate Suleja with a view to identify the challenges confronting the effective management practice suitable for the Estate and other public Estate in Nigeria.
Public estate management is also the management of government property, equipment, tooling and physical capital assets that are acquired and used to build, repair and maintain the public estate. Property management involves the processes, systems and manpower required to manage the life cycle of all public residential property as defined above including acquisition, control, accountability, responsibility, maintenance, utilization and disposition (Njoku, 2006).
According to Ebie (2012), duties involved in public property management generally will include a minimum of these basic primary tasks
1. The full and proper screening or testing of an tenants/applicant's credit, criminal history, rental history and ability to pay.
2. Lease contracting or accepting rent using legal documents approved for the area in which the property is located.
3. Mitigation and remediation regarding any maintenance issues, generally within a budget, with prior or conveyed consent via a Limited Power of Attorney legally agreed to by the property owner.
There are many facets to this public property (estate) management, including managing the accounts and finances of the real estate/residential properties, and participating in or initiating litigation with tenants, contractors and insurance agencies. Litigation is at times considered a separate function, set aside for trained attorneys. Although a person will be responsible for this in his/her job description, there may be an attorney working under a property manager. Special attention is given to landlord/tenant law and most commonly evictions, non-payment, harassment, reduction of pre-arranged services, and public nuisance are legal subjects that gain the most amount of attention from residential property managers.
MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC ESTATE
Management of public property conceived “property management” as a team usually applied in a situation whereby someone other than the owner of a property performs the management function i.e estate surveyor and valuer that renders his professional managerial skills to the owner and occupier and readily applies same to the management of the property. Management: is the art and science of effective control over a real estate with regards to its development, maintenance, cash flow, and occupiers in order to achieve optimum benefit to the owner and all parties interested in the property with the aid of the relevant laws. In essence, active management style is very common with multiple occupancy and sometimes corporate owned properties where the employees of the corporate organizations are the occupiers.
OBJECTIVES OF MANAGING PUBLIC ESTATE
The major objectives of managing public estates are:-
I. To promote economic development
II. To provide public services and income for the government
III. To achieve social goals.
IV. To provide and control the use of public goods.
i. To promote economic development: This can be seen in term of capital maximization. The economist of recent realized that economic development cannot be achieved without regulating the negative impact of human action on the environment and land resources base. However, management of public Estate has in recent times incorporated in its aim the regulation of negative externalities of human action on the environment and land resources base. This objective is often expressed in land resources conservation policies and environmental laws.
ii. To provide public services and income for the government: The objective of providing public service underlie the acquisition and management of estate by public authorities in case of land and buildings occupied and used in performing their constitutional roles. Land and building used by government departments are manage to derive maximum utility in terms of their use and occupation. The estates must be able to serve adequately the purpose for which they are acquired and developed. Public authorities’ aim of acquiring investment properties is to generate income for the administration of government. Many public authorities in Nigeria have developed shops, market stalls and office complex, which are let to tenants to generate income in order to supplement their statutory allocation.
iii. To achieve social Goals: The social aim of managing public estates may be done to alleviate poverty, to re-distribute wealth and or to promote the health and well-being of the society. This alleviation of poverty is much more pronounced in the area of shelter provision. i.e. the provision of low cost houses by the federal and state government for the low income earners at subsidize rent, while the redistribution of wealth take place when land tenure system hampers individual ownership and the objective of promoting society underline public health authorities control of land use and development in order to reduce health hazards and accidents.
iv. To provide and control the use of public goods: Public goods are goods that are necessarily desirable for the society but private enterprises cannot supply them because desirable prices cannot be charged and if charges are levied, payment may be difficult.