A new report reveals a striking stagnation in Lagos’s housing market: the number of rental households has remained frozen at 1.38 million for the past nine years, despite a massive population increase.
According to The State of Lagos Housing Market Vol. 3 Report, Lagos’s population grew from 21 million in 2016 to an estimated 24 million in 2025. This surge created 750,000 new households, yet the number of families living in formal rental homes did not increase at all. While the percentage of Lagos households who rent has dropped from 83 per cent to 77 per cent, the absolute number of renters stayed exactly the same.
The report suggests this could be due to growing affordability issues. With high costs, many residents may be moving into informal housing, overcrowded units, or building their own homes instead of renting.
This data reinforces a trend of extreme rent hikes in Lagos. A 2024 report showed that some rents had more than doubled in just four years, far outpacing household income growth. For example, the rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Oke-Afa Ejigbo jumped from around ₦400,000 to over ₦1.1 million between 2020 and 2024.
These findings highlight a significant and worsening housing crisis in Lagos. While the city’s housing supply has improved, the overall deficit has widened to about 3.4 million units as of 2025. The report concludes that to keep up with population growth and replace old housing, Lagos needs to build 227,576 new homes every year, a target it is currently nowhere near meeting.
