Hostel Hustle: UNILAG Students Trapped Between Scarce Beds and Costly Rents

UNILAG students are battling a severe accommodation crisis as scarce hostel spaces, rising fees, and expensive off-campus rents leave thousands struggling to find affordable housing.

Thousands of University of Lagos (UNILAG) students are facing an acute accommodation crisis, with limited hostel spaces, rising fees, and soaring off-campus rents forcing many into financial strain. The university has approximately 8,000-10,000 bed spaces available for over 35,000 students, making competition for on-campus accommodation fierce.

The official cost of a bed space in the university’s 15 hostels is N80,000, but private hostels on campus charge at least N710,000 per bed space. Off-campus rents in surrounding areas like Abule Oja, Iwaya, and Onike range from N500,000 to N2m per annum. Many students cope by squatting, but the university has cracked down on this practice, warning that overcrowding would lead to rapid deterioration of facilities.

Students like Moses, a fourth-year student, have been balloting for bed spaces since their first year without success. “The chances of getting a bed space are between five and 10 per cent,” said Chinyere, a third-year student. Experts urge stakeholders to treat student housing as social infrastructure, not just commercial real estate, and call for increased funding for universities to build more hostels.

The university is leveraging Public-Private Partnerships to expand hostel capacity, with over 2,000 bed spaces added in the past five years. However, students and experts agree that more needs to be done to address the accommodation shortage.

READ ALSO: Lagos Landlord on the Run After Threatening to Kill UNILAG Student

SOURCES: ALLSCHOOL, PUNCH