Tax Reforms Bill Will Make Housing More Affordable – Presidency

The Presidency has stated that the proposed Tax Reforms Bill will ease the cost of housing in Nigeria by reducing the tax burden on the construction and real estate sectors.

Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, made this known on Thursday at the Building and Construction Industry Forum held in Abuja. The event was organised by the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) in collaboration with the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN).

Speaking on the theme, “Nigeria’s Tax Reforms and the Building and Construction Industry: Implications and Opportunities”, Oyedele said the bill offers numerous benefits but has been misunderstood by some.

According to him, once enacted, the bill will exempt Value Added Tax (VAT) on real estate transactions, making building materials and housing more affordable.

“The bill is designed in a way to favour low income earners contrary to what is being claimed, it will also ease their burden. There will be no VAT on lands, sale of real estate, and rent is exempted from VAT. Some of these are areas of controversies in the past.

There is an exemption on stamp duties for rents below N10 million a month and capital gains tax is also exempted on the sale of dwelling houses,” he said.

Oyedele added that the bill would also grant priority sector incentives to the production of building materials, including non-metallic products, to boost local production. He said reforms would also target improvements in land transactions, titling processes, and harmonisation of property taxes.

“The Tax Reforms Bill will improve the affordability of housing. It will provide relief for people who are paying rent because what this bill is going to do is to remove a lot of the tax burden.

The essence is to make life better for everybody and improve the economic activities in the building and construction sectors, and by extension, the whole of the economy,” he said.

He further urged Nigerians to seek proper information about the bill, rather than relying on social media narratives and misleading headlines.

Also speaking at the forum, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, said the bill offers significant relief to construction firms and contractors.

Represented by the Director of Public Building, Temitope Gbemi, Dangiwa stated that the ministry’s housing policies are now fully aligned with the fiscal reforms. He noted that efforts were underway to work with tax authorities to ensure that real estate and housing investments are guided by clarity, fairness, and strong investor protection.

In his remarks, CORBON Chairman, Samson Opaluwah, highlighted poor access to finance and multiple taxation as major challenges facing the industry. He expressed optimism that the tax reforms would help address these issues.

The Executive Director of HDAN, Festus Adebayo, also welcomed the VAT exemptions on land, real estate transactions, and building material production as a positive step for the sector.