Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Tuesday said the emerging trend of fraudulent practice in the real estate sector called for vigilant among the residents, noting that the State Goverment has put in place measures to curb quackery in the sector.
The Governor who stated this through his Deputy, Dr Kadri Hamzat said the sector could be a floodgate of economic prosperity to the State and stakeholders when potential risks were minimum.
Sanwo-Olu spoke at the third Lagos Real Estate Market Place Conference and Exhibitions at Eko Hotel, Lagos.
This Year’s edition adopts a Town Hall Meeting on The Lagos Real Estate Emerging Markets-Mitigating Potential Risks was aimed at ensuring sanity in the sector to restore the State’s Real Estate Environment.
The review of the Agency’s Law was adopted on Monday, 7th February, 2022, to protect investors/investees against any potential risks and also prosecute individuals / organizations, boost the activities of Real Estate Markets with accredited and licensed Practitioners through lasrera.lagosstate.gov.ng,
The event which was organized by LASRERA has 1, 584 enrollees on its rgistration portal. Out of this number, LASRERA can only boast of a total of 203 registered practitioners.
Sanwo-Olu said, “The emerging trends and practices in this sector in recent time call for increased vigilance on the part of all genuine practitioners and the government in view of the rate of reported cases of dubious acts by some real estate agents who are taking undue advantage of the market which has become one of the fastest growing in Nigeria and Lagos State in particular as a result of increasing population.
“As a Government, we owe it a duty to safeguard investments of people who may be unaware of some unprofessional practices in the market. The need to restore public confidence to this sector led to the establishment of the Lagos State Real Estate transaction in Lagos State to protect the citizens and investors from the potential risks emerging in the market.”
He added, “The Agency has defined minimum operational standards and guidelines for citizens to abide with. The guidelines provide a comprehensive checklist for the citizens to correctly identify and have competitive list of registered individuals/organizations to avoid doing business with unregistered Real Estate practitioners in the system.
“We can’t talk about risks in the real estate sector without mentioning the violation of principles of transparency and Real Estate Laws. These to a greater extent, are major potential risks in this sector,” the Governor stated.
He stated LASRERA could not do the job alone considering the huge real estate transaction going on in different parts of the State, saying the need for joint monitoring of this sector to curb quackery and unlicensed operators.
“It is my belief that the Real Estate Market can be floodgate of Economic prosperity to the State and Stakeholders when potential risks are minimum in this sector.”
A new revelation however came to the fore over the Ikoyi high rise building that collapsed on 1 November 2021. The Panel Chairman of Inquiry set up by the State Goverment, Mr Olutoyin Ayinde said students were employed as architects during the construction.
The 21-storey block of luxury flats under construction in the neighbourhood of Ikoyi collapsed where at least 42 people died including the developer.
Speaking at the 3rd Lagos Real Estate Market Place Conference and Exhibitions, the Chairman of the panel said everything was wrong about the construction.
Ayinde disclosed, “Everything goes wrong about the Gerrard Road building collapse. The architects were students. There was no insurance, no supervision. The building collapsed even before it was built.”
Ayinde spoke as a panelist on the topic, ‘Stemming the tide of Building failure in Lagos State,’ adding that the developer complained the service of professionals was expensive, noting, “It is just a case of if education is expensive, try ignorance.”
In her welcome address, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing, Mrs Toke Benson-Awoyinka said, “The Real Estate Sector has been plagued with risks and losses which have been critical issues for those in the Sector, the globalization on transparency on Business Transactions in the Real Estate Markets as demanded from international Standard of any investments, necessitated the need for the involvement of government in the regulation of the Real Estate Sector.”
While citing examples of protests over fraudulent developers, she said, “The impersonation in the Real Estate Industry is becoming unethically high and this is seriously contributing to fraudulent proliferation in Real Estate Market which is having negative impact on the reputation of individuals/ organizations including the regulating Agencies of the State Government.
“This development calls for appropriate regulation, implementation and enforcement of the Real Estate Laws in order to restore sanity into the sector and instil public confidence in the real estate profession and it explains why the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority – LASRERA is mandated to regulate and register those individuals / organizations who are involved in this Sector.
“At matter of fact, if the regulations and policies of the State Government are not effectively regulated with proper Law such as LASRERA Law, Mortgage Insurance Policy and Land Matter Laws which guarantee, safeguard and protect those people involved whenever there is Business Transactions in case of disasters in Construction projects, Acquisition/Sale, Rental on Residential/Commercial purposes, the sector will continue to have records of loss of money and investment opportunities.”
