The President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Rowland Abonta has urged fellows and Heads of Practice, to show exemplary leadership and represent the profession well at the nation’s seat of power.
Speaking at a breakfast meeting for the Fellows and Heads of Practice, of the institution at the weekend in Abuja, Abonta appealed to surveyors to work hard to keep the flag of professional estate surveyors high in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).He commended the stakeholders for their contribution in sustaining the profession, adding that they occupy very important in history, as this is the first time the FCT branch is producing the National President of NIESV since inception.
Speaking on the topic, ‘’Improving Professional practice in the period of economic challenges”, the guest speaker, Osas Aigbekan said the nation’s economy is faced with low budget performance, high debt profile totalling N24.9trillion, collapsed manufacturing and industrial sectors and poor infrastructure among others.He observed that these had impacted negatively on the profession leading to low valuation from banks due to poor lending, increased accommodation vacancies, drop in property values and poor remuneration for professional services.
Aigbekan urged members of the profession to develop positive brand names, solid customer base, good customer a and employees relations and also leverage on technology for effective and efficient service delivery Chairman, Abuja chapter of the institution, Charles Oghenoro Ebiai said in spite of the economic challenges in the country, surveyors should work hard to unlock the potential of the FCT and improve their on relationships wither their clients .
Ebiai described as a welcome development the ongoing demolition of illegal structures in some estates around Lokogoma area FCT by the FCDA, noting that though it was a good idea that government went into mass housing , the people in charge of approving development started giving people plots without considering the terrain .
The chairman said government should look into the matter and ensure that the developers compensate the house owners to ensure that they do not loose out completely. Ebiai who lamented that there are so many empty houses in Abuja city centre due to high rental, said, ”Government sold houses to civil servants but they resold the houses and moved to the hinterland and made rentals go high.
The rent in the outskirts is now almost at par with the city centre because the middle class has moved to the outskirts and there is a high demand for houses there”.”In Lagos, there are houses that are going for daily, weekly and monthly rent and we need to implement this, the rental of any property in any environment is as a result of demand and supply”, he added.
Source: guardianng
