With the outrageous capital appreciation of land in Lagos State, Mowe/Ibafo axis along Lagos Ibadan Expressway appears the only hope for the common man to own a house of his own as there is now mass exodus of the middle and low-income earners who cannot afford to own houses in Lagos to the area.

This is because it is only in these areas that one could buy a plot of land below one million naira.

In Mowe for instance, land is sold at between N250.000 to N800,000 depending on the nearness of the land to the major road. This is however, a piece of cake compared to Lagos where in the highbrow areas like Lekki, Ikoyi and other such areas land goes for hundreds of millions of naira. Even the suburbs like Ikotu, Agege, Okoko and others, one can hardly get a plot of land below N5 million.

Realizing the movement of the middle and low-income earners to the areas, a lot of Real Estate companies have rushed in to position themselves for business.

As at now, there are well over 30 real estate development companies in the area. Some of the estates are being developed by private initiatives while others are by public private participation with an understanding between the Ogun State government and privately owned real estate developers.

In order to make land affordable, some of the real estate developers that have bought land from the natives offer attractive conditions like payment by installments and mortgage facilities to their prospective clients.

These mouth-watering incentives have made the towns along the Lagos/Ibadan Express way, the toast of the middle and low-income earners.

It is therefore expected that going by the movement to the area, in the next 10 years there could be a development like that in South Africa under the apartheid where there was separate towns for the rich and the poor with Lagos being for the rich and Mowe/Ibadan being for the poor. The reason being that with a standard two-bedroom flat going for N350, 000 per annum and with prospects of increases while the income of the middle class is depreciating, it is becoming clear that Lagos is no longer for the poor.

However, Ogun State government having realized the movement to its territory does not want the emerging towns to turn to slums.

They had adjusted to the current realities by presenting a holistic approach on how the towns and cities would grow and the computerization of the work processes with the launch of the geographic information laboratory and a new securitization certificate of occupancy.

According to the Director General, Ogun State Bureau of Lands and Survey, they are engaging principled negotiation techniques and extensive community consultation and sensitization to promote land policy decisions.

He said that their notable efforts are land readjustment as a response to market defects, which has helped significantly in making land available for public facilities, and development sites, promote orderly development and divert population to specific areas where development is deemed favorable in tandem with the state regional plans.