The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo olu on Housing Hon Toke Benson-Awoyinka on Thursday in an exclusive interview with Lagos Panorama decried the high rate of fraudulent acts among Estate Agents and Developers who defraud unsuspecting members of the public of their hard-earned money.
Awoyinka stated that “we have a department here called the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Development (LASRETRAD) under the Lagos State Ministry of Housing, it was initially setup by the Lagos State Estate Regulatory Agency Law in 2007 under the administration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu”.
“The aim was to bring all estate practitioners under one umbrella. Due to some challenges in staggered at the beginning whereby practitioners felt that the government was trying to control the activities in their various professional bodies. As time went by we were able to convince them that we were not interested in controlling their professional body or the activities within the profession. What we are concern with is what goes on within the real estate practice in Lagos state”.
“So in 2012 former Governor Babatunde Fashola came up with an Executive Order to setup the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Development (LASRETRAD) under the office of the Special Adviser for Housing”.
“LASRETRAD is now bringing together all real estate stakeholders from the builders, the architects, surveyors, estate agents, the developers everybody along the value-chain including the legal practitioners who eventually get the agreements done”.
She explained further “So we have the stakeholders meeting coming up on the 29th of October. It’s going to be a chitchat section, Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu is the chief host of the programme. We are going to have them speak on their challenges in the practice of real estate in Lagos State. We are going to tell them the reason we have a database for real estate practitioners. Which is first to improve the business activities in the state. Second to build investor’s confidence, so people can stay in New York or anywhere in the world and log onto the Lagos State real estate website to ascertain; is the person I am dealing with a government certified realtor or agent within the country. So from anywhere you can just verify. Then we can also curb fraud in the system, there are lot of fraud in the system right now. A few months ago a certain gentleman rented out 15 self-contain apartments to 268 people and collected N68 million. When that happened to the society the society comes back to the government that you’re supposed to protect our lives and properties. So we took that up with the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to prosecute on behalf of the citizens. These rampant fraudulent cases need to be curbed. Last week 2 young people came into my office that in Gbagada 5 flats was rented to about 70 people for N28 million, now they can’t find the developer neither the landlord”.
“Some landlords want to rent out their properties out themselves, we also asked them to register with us, that you as a landlord you’re in the business renting your properties. We are only collating database on behalf of government so when a fraud takes place somewhere we know if the person is in our database or if is not in our database we will advise promptly. So we are going to do a state-wide campaign and advocacy educating the populace. It happens a lot in our rural communities because the demand for housing is high. We understand we have a deficit of about 2.5 million homes in Lagos State. We’re trying to meet that demand through the Ministry of Housing’s Affordable Housing scheme, Rent to own scheme and our other various mortgage options”.
“However private organisations still need to collaborate with government in constructing all these housing units. So we are doing broad advocacy on enlightening our people. When we meet on the 29th of October at the Eko Hotel and Suites, we will have questions and answers, we hope to use what comes out of the meeting to chart a way forward in the real-estate business in Lagos State. We intend to do it down the value chain”.
“A lady was here yesterday to complain that about 28 people had bought land from a company in Magodo with individual paid between N1.5 to N2 million each with nothing to show for it. So we need to curb the excesses of real estate practitioners in Lagos State. We want to make sure we sanitised the environment. At the same time creating a database ensuring everybody is captured as we need to know who is who in Lagos state real estate business. If you’re into real estate in Lagos State is my business to make sure you’re captured so we can have global best practices in the industry. It’s in no way going to increase rent in Lagos State. We just want to know those who are legitimate and even occasionally organise seminars and trainings for them.
On the issue of housing deficits in Lagos State Awoyinka said that the State Government has embarked on massive housing projects as part of efforts to provide affordable accommodation for all residents who are in need of a home. She noted that “His Excellency Governor Babajide olusola Sanwo olu has pledged to the people of Lagos to provide 10,000 housing units every year and we are working hard at doing that. There are lots of Lagos Home projects all over Lagos waiting for completion. We intend to face completion of those projects before we start new developments. So we should be throwing into the public space like we just did 2 months ago we had 492 units commissioned in Igando, the Alhaji Lateef Jakande Gardens Estate. Some will also come up in the first quarter of next year. The people of Lagos will smile very soon” she opined.
To benefit from the State housing scheme she noted that “once you identify the unit you’re interested in, you go to the Lagos State Mortgage Board here in the Ikeja Central Business District (CBD) and get the application form for about N5,000 or N10,000. They give you some prerequisites that you need to do. For those in the formal sector they check your daily or monthly income and see if for instance you get a mortgage of N5 million they value the monthly payable amount and look at your financial record to know if you’re eligible of paying within the stipulated time. We used to have the Lagos Homs which was for a down payment of 30% but afterwards we reviewed it and started the rent to own which is a down payment of 5%, so if for instance the house is N5 million you’re expected to pay a down payment of N250, 000 and spread the rest over 10 to 15 years”.
“So we’re doing everything to make housing affordable for Lagosians. So rather than renting an apartment for a million naira a year you might as well enrol for the rent to own policy. Identify the area of the development you’re interested in then you go to the Lagos State Mortgage Board and the mortgage is eventually carried out through the Lagos Building Investment Company which is also in the CBD. So you can see we start the value chain from the development of the unit to the eventual allocation and the mortgage” she concluded.
