The Lagos State government recently mandated the registration of all practitioner in the real estate business, including house agents, property developers and professionals in the state.
In the light of this development and as part of its relentless advocacy for affordable and decent housing for Nigerians, the Housing Development Advocacy Network recently hosted a one-on-one virtual interview anchored by HDAN’s Director and moderator of the group’s recent webinar series, Barr. Festus Adebayo, with the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Housing, Toke Benson-Awoyinka, giving insights into the state government’s recent move to sanitize real estate practice within the state.
Here are the excerpts.
Why is Lagos state regulating real estate sector?
I must say this is a journey that has been long for a while, in 2007 a law was signed into existence by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It was called the Lagos state estate agency regulatory law, and in 2007, Governor Fashola also carried over, and in 2012 he signed an executive order where he created a Department under the ministry of housing of the Lagos state Real Estate Transactions Department. This was as a result of the fraud and the irregularities going on in the real estate sector. So Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-olu decided to take the ball higher being somebody who is also very interested in real estate and who had always been in the industry and a major player in the industry. He decided that we should not have a department handling it because of the enormity of real estate matters ongoing in the state, he upgraded it to an agency called the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority.
Hence that agency was born, it’s a child of necessity was born out of the need to regulate the industry, it was born out of the need to sanitize the industry, was born out of the need to formalize a lot of things going on in the industry. A lot of our citizens have fallen victim to a lot of fraud, stuff not done the right way, development agreements not carried out or halted halfway have given a number of cases of frauds that we’ve recorded and we have been handling in our office till date. We are hoping that the whole of the real estate world would embrace us and partner with us and let’s move this forward.
Is the registration mandatory, if it is, what is the process of doing it?
Well if we say it is voluntary, then we are not regulating. It is mandatory that you register with us, and only last week, we launched our portal which is Lasrera.com. So registration is mandatory and a number of things that you need to know to register and be licensed to transact real estate business in Lagos.
We’ve had some calls from some professional bodies asking why the Lagos state government would want to regulate their professions. I want to make it clear and I want them to understand very clearly, we are not regulating professional bodies, we are not regulating professions, we are regulating the activities of real estate ongoing in Lagos state, we are regulating the transactions of real estate ongoing in Lagos state. It is the business of the government to make sure and we have that social contract with the government to protect the lives and property of citizens and that is the main aim for this registration process. Wherever you are all over the world, you can log on to our website and you can pick up a stake holder in the industry and you can sit in your homes and verify that the person has been licensed by the Lagos state government to transact real estate business in Lagos and therefore I would expect that it would be a seamless process.
It is easy to register with us. You must be a Nigerian or you have a valid work permit, you must be 18 years or older, you must have a minimum qualification of WAEC, NECO or any other, you must have a minimum training or certification in real estate transactions. We expect that part of the things you are supposed to be doing is relating to real estate business. We don’t want a case of all comers, we want to streamline the industry, we want to make sure it is sanitized and we’re not making it difficult, we just want to know who you are, we don’t want anybody who doesn’t have anything to do at a particular time to say I’m a realtor, I’m real estate practitioner, we need to professionalize the industry and that’s why we are asking that the players and stakeholders in the industry partner with us and let us move this forward. It is the job of the state government to regulate the state and the activities in the state and we are hoping that we would get enough support from the stakeholders.
What is the relationship between your agency and professional associations like REDAN, NIESV, and what support have you received from your Lagos state house of assembly, you have a law that now backs your operation.
Like I said the law was done in 2007, and that’s quite a while back now and things have changed in Lagos we are progressing, we are trying to conform to global best practices, and we are going to be amending that law pretty soon, it is awaiting the assent of the governor. And I know that the Lagos state house of assembly will work in partnership with the Lagos state government, we are getting enough support from the Lagos state House of Assembly. In October 2019, we had a stakeholders meeting, we made sure that all the stakeholders in the industry were at that meeting and it was a unanimous decision that it is time to sanitize, it is time to moderate, it is time to streamline the industry, so REDAN was there, Estate surveyors and Valuers were there, we had the chairman of the NBA in Lagos there, we had Family Homes Funds, we had stakeholders from Abuja, Minister of Housing was also represented, the Governor was there, Deputy Governor was there, that’s to show you that we actually really mean business with real estate in Lagos. And I often times tell people that real estate in Lagos is like oil is to Nigeria.
So why would we want to deviate from that responsibility to monitor, to sanitize and to regulate?
Though we’ve had a few banters with some of these agencies and professional bodies and that was why I mentioned it earlier that we’re here to partner we’re here to collaborate, we expect your support. Real estate business is available to all and there is really to regulations going right now. Fine the NBA can regulate its lawyers, REDAN trying to regulate real estate developers but there must be a unified statue and that’s the job of the government so we want to unify, we want to collaborate, we want to bring all these bodies together so that we can work as one, we can keen on that industry, I think that industry needs some keen and all and we are ready to go out.
Can you roll out some of your experiences and achievements?
We became an agency on the 7th of February 2020, we used to be a Department under the Ministry of Housing, but we are still under the Ministry of Housing but we stand alone under the ministry. So our achievements, we have been able to assist some indigenes- like I said there’s a lot of fraud in the industry. The response is good we’ve issued over 401 licenses or permit to practitioners, we have three pending cases in the law court and that’s the case of 266 victims in Alpere to the tune of 58million naira. A certain developer collected 58 million naira from 266 Lagosians promising to give them home, accommodation, and he bailed 15 units and sold the 266 people. So also we have 59 victims in Ajegunle and that’s also to the tune of 20 million naira, we have 78 victims in Gbagada and that is also to the tune of 28 million naira. I’m mentioning these three because those are the people that have come in recently, if I start to read out some of the other cases, a few months back we had 75 victims in Surulere, a certain developer or agent also collected 28 million naira from them, we has 104 victims in Ajah to the tune of 39 million naira paid without accommodation or housing, we have 60 victims in Ipaja-Ishaga and 32 million naira.
It is my pride that Lagos state government is living to its responsibility in protecting citizens and that is one of our major incentives to move forward to drive and let the people know that we are there to protect them, at the same time it’s a two way coin, we are also there to assist the developers, to assist the practitioners, the realtors in whatever way we can. So if we don’t know them we don’t know what to do, we have started the yearly conference which we did one last year in October, we don’t know how it is going to take place this year but we expect to do it. So we are going to be doing quite a few engagements, we are going to engage the advertising practitioners of Nigeria because I say every real estate fraud starts with an advertisement. It goes online and from there boom!- 30 agents gets on to it and you don’t even know the actual agent in charge of that property. Like I said as much as we want to help the victim as well we also want to help the industry players so that in whatever way we can, we can help them with their processes and applications. Once they are registered with us, once they register that transaction with us, we see through completion.
Have you been receiving messages from people in diaspora?
So I’m going to tell you the story of a young lady who walked into my office yesterday, She is a lawyer and also a realtor, she’s been at it for ten years, she called me over the weekend and said her sister in England called her and sent her the link to be part of what the Lagos state government is doing. So it is almost like the people in diaspora are following what the Lagos state government is doing and I guess as you said because some of them are falling victims of the developers and scam.
We have a pandemic going on, we have people who are losing their jobs, we don’t want an industry where people who are givers are not giving what they are supposed to be giving. It’s a contractual agreement between both parties and on party should not fail and then the other party not having any form of redress, we are here we are going to give all the support that we can to victims who have fallen short of fraudsters in the industry.
Do you have any relationship with the EFCC on this matter? Are you working with them?
Well not yet, we have the Nigerian financial intelligence unit also clamoring to partner with and we will do everything that is possible to do this. We also see the collaboration of major stakeholders in the industry, we have big time players in the industry, together, we should be able to separate the which from the shaft in Lagos, we should be able to clean up this industry, we should be able to sanitize this industry, we should be able to monitor what is going on in this industry. I would urge every stakeholder in the industry to partner with Lagos state Real Estate Regulatory Authority, register with us, let us work on this matter together.
HDAN’s one-on-one virtual interview with the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Housing, comes as fulfilment to the promises made by HDAN Director on need to have virtual interviews with the Housing stakeholders of each state as part the group’s advocacy in the area of affordable housing and more interviews will follow in days to come.
