Do you know that it will cost you less than One Hundred Thousand Naira to get a qualified Architect Design and supervise your house which is worth Two Million Naira to completion?
Well, a Hundred thousand Naira may seem a lot to let go for a small piece of real estate, but I can promise you that in the long run, its going to pay you better in terms of benefits, maintenance cost and personal satisfaction, than employing the services of the numerous ‘plan printers’. Another name for them is ‘quack’.
For the purpose of this blog, I’ll narrow my scope to residential buildings for low-income earners.
Your house, like your child will outlive you – that is if you get the right people to do design and build it, and in Nigeria especially, its more or less your personal statement. Now imagine it if after you’ve spent a huge chunk of your earnings, personal savings or pension to make this ‘personal statement’, only to realize that either the bedroom is too small, or its always hot, or the toilet is always smelly – even after you flush.
When you employ the services of a qualified Architect, its like going to see a good doctor. You’ll see that you can literally trust your life to this individual. Don’t be scared about fees. There’s a standard scale of fees approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria, and its criminal for an Architect to charge above it.
Finally, let me remind you that the building – in this case, your house determines your life in more ways than you think (we can discuss that in another discourse), and personally, I prefer giving this responsibility to a qualified Architect. Do You?
Its actually cheaper to engage the services of a qualified Architect. Who said cheapness is only about money?
