The Brutal Truth about Nigeria’s Broken Rental Housing Market and How Citiliving is Fixing the Problem with Tech and Community. Written by Era Iyayi, Founder, Citi Living.
At first, I thought it was an exaggeration or a casual joke.
However, after speaking to dozens of working Nigerians at the Lagos Startup Expo by Techpoint Africa, held in Lagos on June 18 and 19, 2025, a troubling truth emerged. For many urban Nigerians, finding a decent place to rent is harder than securing a job.
Let that sink in.
In a country battling record youth unemployment and underemployment, people told us – repeatedly – that they had a better shot at landing a job than securing a safe, affordable, and honest place to live.
And sadly, they aren’t wrong.
If you have ever tried to rent an apartment in Lagos or Abuja, you have likely faced one or more of the following:
- Misleading and sometimes fake listings on listing platforms designed by agents to scam desperate renters.
- Agents collecting multiple inspection fees and renting the same apartment to multiple persons.
- Outrageous upfront payments – two years’ rent, legal fees, caution fees, agency fees as high as 20%, and even inspection fees to be paid by the renter before taking possession.
- Discrimination – Single women often face outright rejection from landlords who assume they are “irresponsible” or “promiscuous.”
- Poorly built, poorly maintained and unresponsive landlords who ignore repairs and complaints.
At our booth-turned-podcast studio during the Lagos Startup Expo by Techpoint Africa, we heard story after story from real people. One that struck me deeply came from Omolara, a female tech founder who had to pretend to be married just to get an apartment. “The landlord said he doesn’t rent to single women,” she told us. “So, I invented a husband.”
This isn’t just a housing problem. It has become a dignity problem, and deeper than many of us think.
Nigeria’s rental housing market is chaotic because it is built on fragmentation, zero trust, and zero accountability. Investors with the resources are discouraged from investing the rental properties despite the known opportunities because they lack the tools and structure to screen tenants, guarantee payments and manage maintenance at optimal costs. This has led to a market with limited supply despite rapid urbanisation. Renters, on the other hand, navigate a maze of unregulated agents, unreliable listings, absentee landlords, and outdated, paper-based processes, if any. There’s no central system to verify who is who. No insurance. No tenant protections. In a country with over 120 million urban dwellers projected by 2050, renting a home often feels like a nightmare for many urban dwellers.
This is not just a housing crisis; it is a systems failure. And we knew we couldn’t just complain, so we had to build the solution to fix the problem fast. We are building the infrastructure to make renting investable again, structured, and seamless for everyone.
Our mission is to leverage technology and community to solve the rental housing crisis in congested urban cities, starting from Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria. Our model makes owning rental properties safe and transparent while making property and facility management stress-free and renting seamless in just three (3) clicks. Here’s how we are doing it:
1. We verify every home and screen every tenant using technology.
Only expertly verified homes are listed on the Citiliving platform. No fake listings and no shady renters. While this means we cannot boast of huge numbers of listings for now to meet the demand on our platform, we are slowly building trust and a reputation for quality rental listings while working hard to grow the numbers without compromising quality.
2. We cut out the middlemen through our Direct-to-Renter Listings.
We develop rental properties and work with other property developers and landlords whose values align with ours, and properties meet our quality criteria to manage the properties and list them directly to renters. No agents and no hidden fees. We cut out the middlemen so both renters and landlords win.
3. Seamless Renting in 3 Clicks.
From verification, search, payment, to move-in, renting with Citiliving takes just three clicks. We are simplifying the journey so renters can rent with ease and confidence.
4. Stress-Free Property Management.
Through our property and facility management, we take the hassle out of owning and managing rental property. From rent collection to maintenance, we manage it all with tech-enabled efficiency, encouraging more investment in rental properties.
5. Rental Housing is now Investable
At Citiliving, we are not just helping individuals own rental properties; we are building the infrastructure that makes rental housing a viable, investable asset class.
By removing the stress of tenant screening, rent collection, and maintenance, we unlock confidence for investors. And when rental housing becomes investable at scale, it attracts the capital needed to build thousands of new homes, helping close Nigeria’s housing gap faster. This is how Citiliving is turning trust into investment and investment into impact.
Citiliving is listening and building the solution to the rental housing crisis in congested urban cities, starting with Lagos, Nigeria.
When we set up our podcast booth at the Startup Expo, we weren’t sure what to expect. But some of what we heard shook us and sharpened our resolve. From people forced to lie about their marital status to others who lost money to fake agents, the need for change is urgent.
So, we have turned those stories into a podcast, and we are launching Renting Without Rant, our new podcast, where we amplify real voices, explore hard truths, and continue to push for change. Because renting in Nigeria shouldn’t be traumatic. It should be seamless, transparent, and stress-free.
Now, we want to hear from you. Based on your experience, do you agree: Is renting a house in Lagos and Abuja truly more difficult than finding a job? Share your thoughts.
Seunmanuel Faleye is a brand and communications strategist. He is a covert writer and an overt creative head. He publishes Apple’s Bite International Magazine.
