A Room at Any Cost: How UNIZIK Students Bear the Brunt of Soaring Private Hostel Rents

By Amarachukwu Callistus

Three years ago, Theresa Ichoku, now a final-year student at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, moved into a single room at USA Lodge, an off-campus students’ hostel, where she paid N175,000 rent annually. A year later, the rent was increased to N225,000.

Last July, her landlady’s agent knocked with a notice that the rent had been hiked to N450,000. She paid grudgingly and continued staying in the apartment. 

But Joshua Onyekwelu, a 300-level student, was forced to leave his off-campus hostel at Miracle Junction when he couldn’t afford the new rent after it was hiked from N400,000 to N525,000.

Mr Onyekwelu had shared the room with his brother, who had now graduated and, therefore, couldn’t pay the hiked rent alone.

“It was in February this year, when my rent was about to expire,” the student recalled in an interview with Campus Reporter. “The caretaker, Sir Paul, sent me a WhatsApp message telling me to pack out on Friday if I could not renew.”

After a long search for another room, he eventually found one for N200,000, and decided to get a roommate.

“Since there was a roommate, I would pay ₦100,000,” he said.

A concern for UNIZIK students

These stories reflect UNIZIK students’ battle with arbitrary increases in rents by private hostel operators. Across private hostels in Ifite, Amansea, and Bus Stand, university students told Campus Reporter that landlords have increased rents, many of them by up to 100 per cent every year. 

The founder of Afrihomes Group, a Real Estate Company in Awka, Francis Ndudi, said the increasing prices of land and building materials forced landlords to hike the rents.

But students described the hike as exploitative. 

The Dean of Students Affairs at the university, Kingsley Ubaoji, a professor, told Campus Reporter that the university was aware of the situation, but noted that efforts to get solutions had yielded limited results because landlords were often shielded from direct engagement by caretakers and agents.

Why students patronise private hostels

Students at the university are forced to secure accommodation from private hostel operators as a result of the inadequate bed spaces available in the university-owned hostels. The university’s six hostels – four occupied by female students and two occupied by male students– can not accommodate the over 48,000 students currently studying at the university.

Less than 5,000 bed spaces are available in the university-owned hostels, according to the hostesses who spoke to Campus Reporter.

The real estate expert, Mr Ndudi, said the need for private hostels for students has, therefore, attracted entrepreneurs, driving up the prices of land around the school and ultimately the cost of rent.

Mr Ndudi explained that the increasing population of students and demand for accommodation has driven up the cost of land in the area.

“There is a house and hostel deficit. Land in student areas is on fire (selling fast),” he told Campus Reporter. 

“In 2022, a friend of mine bought a piece of land along Ifite Road for N10 million. Fast forward to 2026, the land has appreciated to around N45 to N50 million because of how investors have demanded land over the years”

But the increase has left students at the mercy of landlords seeking profit for their private hostel investments.

Annual rent increase

When Oluchi (not her real name) first got to UNIZIK, she rented a self-contained apartment at JP Diamond Lodge. A room that could accommodate three students cost N175,000. 

Then the rent increased every year. 

“We are three persons in the room. In my 100 level, the room rent was N210,000, in my 200 level, it increased to N320,000, in my 300 level, it increased to N450,000,” she said.

For her 400 level, which begins in a few months, the caretaker told them the rent would rise to N650,000, asking anyone who could not afford it to leave.

The latest increase prompted Oluchi to consider filing a lawsuit against the landlord. However, after seeking legal advice, she was advised to drop the case.

“I have been advised to drop the case; any further step I take would be to my detriment,” she said.

Ms Ichoku shared a similar story. She said her landlady, simply identified as Mrs Augustine, has increased rent every year, citing maintenance. But the students said the only rehabilitation they have noticed was the painting of the seat-out and compound walls.

Last year, when the rent was hiked to N450,000, she and other residents of the private hostel discussed ways to stop the increases.

The students shared their concerns with the Student Union Government (SUG), which served a letter on the landlady. But the landlady responded, citing maintenance, the high cost of building materials, and added that other private hostels charge higher.

How SUG intervenes

However, the SUG president, Chukwusom Ochuba, said the union had intervened in several cases where landlords and caretakers asked UNIZIK students to leave their off-campus accommodation without following due process.

Mr Ochuba said the SUG had also helped students recover money from landlords and caretakers in some of the cases. 

He said the union had ensured that landlords no longer give one month’s notice for a rent hike or for a quit notice.

“We have intervened and stopped that,” he told Campus Reporter, noting that such a timeline is too short.

The SUG president maintained that “if you are giving a student a quit notice on a yearly rent of 12 months, you must give six months’ notice”.

SUG interventions

Last year, the SUG handled a case involving a UNIZIK student living off-campus at Miracle Junction who was served a three-month quit notice, Mr Ochuba said.

According to him, the SUG wrote to the university management, which provided lawyers. The union then met with the property owner and discovered that the former owner had sold the property to a new landlord.

“We had about five hours of talks because we were firm that the student-tenants, who were on yearly rent, should stay until after six months,” he said.

Another intervention took place at Nwachukwu Lodge at Matadei Junction after flooding, when the caretaker served quit notices on students.

“We extended their stay to six months before they packed out,” Ochuba said.

He added that when a student is properly served a quit notice but cannot afford new accommodation, the SUG works with the Office of the Dean of Students Affairs to secure temporary squatting space in university hostels.

University speaks

The Dean of Students Affairs at the university, Kingsley Ubaoji, a professor, said the university had sought ways to establish agreements with accommodation managers that would protect students while respecting the interests of landlords. 

Mr Ubaoji said the university had also proposed that off-campus accommodations housing its students identify with the institution so that it could play a role in managing them, but some accommodation operators viewed such proposals as an attempt by the university to take control of their income.

“We have scheduled meetings with some caretakers or management of Accommodations we identified to exploit students, and we hope to reach an agreement soon,” he said.

Government moves to tackle rent hike.

Although Anambra State doesn’t currently have a law regulating rent hikes, the government recently passed a bill to control housing deficits. 

The Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, said the government was concerned about the state’s housing deficit and would focus on increasing the supply of houses.

Mr Mefor said the mass housing policy will be developed in partnership with private-sector investors to increase the number of available houses in the state and, by addressing the shortage of accommodation, tackle the twin problems of rising rents and inadequate housing availability.

He said the government’s approach was to address the supply side of the housing market, rather than announce a direct regulation of how much landlords can charge.

Amarachukwu Callistus

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