Housing costs in parts of Nigeria’s commercial capital have nearly doubled while wages have barely moved. Families seeking cheaper homes are being pushed farther from employment centers, where transportation costs consume much of what they hoped to save.

A worker in Lagos can move to a cheaper neighborhood, save hundreds of thousands of naira in annual rent and still struggle to come out ahead. The money saved on housing often goes toward getting to work. Longer commutes introduce another cost: hours spent in traffic that could have been used for work, family responsibilities or rest. For residents of Nigeria’s commercial capital, finding affordable housing increasingly means deciding which expense they can manage and which sacrifice they can tolerate.

New reporting by Chinedum Uwaegbulam in The Guardian Nigeria on October 19 examines the growing imbalance between housing costs and earnings. Research by GTI Investment Group, covering more than 3,200 rental listings across 15 Lagos zones, found that rents in some neighborhoods increased 80% to 120% over two years, while wages rose approximately 7% to 9%. The findings describe a housing market where prices are increasing far faster than the incomes residents depend on to pay them.