The Nigerian Rent Problem |🏠😤 Lagos agents doubled a landlady's rent from N400k to N800k without telling her. This is why you're paying what you're paying.

Lagos has between 18 and 22 million residents. A housing deficit running into millions of units. And if you are a young person who just moved here, a self-contained apartment now starts at N800,000 a year. If you are lucky.Koke just finished house hunting in Lagos. This episode is the full debrief.He breaks down exactly why Lagos rent is this expensive as a structural argument. The city attracts everyone because it gives something no other Nigerian city gives. That demand falls hardest on self-contained apartments and mini flats — the exact houses new arrivals need most.Then there is the agent problem.A landlady renovated her old house and priced her self-contained at N400,000. A fair rent. By the time her agent listed it, the price was N800,000. She did not know. The extra N400,000 was the agent's cut. This is not an isolated case, it is how the market operates.He also talks about what nobody discusses openly: tribal discrimination in Lagos housing. Koke began introducing himself as Chigoze everywhere he went (his Igbo name ) specifically so any landlord with a tribal preference would show it early. What he found is in the episode.And he makes the case most renters do not want to hear, that landlords are also businesspeople, that construction costs are real, and that the agent, for all their abuse of position, is not actually removable from the equation.The episode ends with what finally worked. The type of agent, the approach, and the accidental discovery that got Koke his apartment.If you have ever rented in Nigeria or you are about to, this one is for you.Drop your own house hunting story or tip in the comments. ★ Support this podcast ★