Lagos empowers department to curb fraud, sharp practices in real estate industry
BY Patrick Okohue
In its bid to sanitise the Real Estate Sector and eliminate fraudulent practices in the property market in the state, the Lagos State government has strengthened the State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD), and launched the Real Estate Transaction portal where all practitioners in the sector are to register.
Declaring its resolve at the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD) Stakeholders Engagement on Real Estate/Agency Business meeting held at the Eko Hotel & Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos, the State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the intention of strengthening the department was to secure investments in the property market by checkmating unscrupulous dealings in transactional process.
Sanwo-Olu said the portal will also afford property owners and tenants to register and transact genuinely with one another without the interference of third parties, advising those interested in the property business in the state, either to buy, rent or lease to take advantage of the portal to avoid dealing the persons not registered to deal in the market and end up being swindled.
READ ALSO Police arrest notorious kidnapper, rescue 8 victims
The governor, who was accompanied to the event by his Deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat said that the launching of the portal became imperative to find a lasting solution to incidences of fraudulent and unprofessional practices observed in the real estate sector, noting that the initiative would promote transparency and best practice in the business.
He said, “Apart from facilitating smooth business relationships between people selling or buying landed property, the portal will also be useful to those in leasing or renting of properties across the state. Removing fraud and doubts from their transactional activities will, in no small measure, contribute to the State’s GDP.
“The data collected from the portal will help the government to formulate policies and programmes to regulate, control and professionalise the real estate sector, which is one of the extremely important needs of mankind.”
Sanwo-Olu said that in line with the resolve of his government to ensure ease of doing business in the real estate sector in the state, the government has stepped up measures to sign the backlog of Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O), by authorizing five of his commissioners to also be signing the CofOs with a view to clearing a better part of the back log in the next two month.
This is even as he also assured that the Rent Tribunal in the state would be constituted and become operational before the end of the years to fast track dealing with issues that relate to real estate transactions in the state.
The governor said the State had initially introduced the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD) in its civil service in 2012 to regulate, monitor and develop the institutional framework that would enhance the integrity of the property market, adding that the electronic platform was being introduced to consolidate the activities of the department.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing, Mrs Toke Benson-Awoyinka hinted that Lagos had more innovative and sustainable plans to improve the fortunes of the real estate sector and promote the State as the first destination for property business in the country.
She said the Smart City aspiration of Lagos made it necessary for the Government to track all real estate transactions and capture them electronically with access to data.
The cabinet member observed the need by the State to continuously capture and update a unified central database for real estate activities within the State, noting that it would help in planning and decision-making.
In a chat with newsmen at the end of the event, Mrs Benson-Awoyinka said, “all stakeholders here today and all the business people in the real estate business in the state have bought into the fact that the government needs to sanitise the real estate industry.
“Now, the government and private developers, lawyers, business people, surveyors are all in sync, we are ready to sanitise the real estate industry, we are ready to curb the fraud in the real estate industry and we are good to go because of we got the buy-in here today that government needs to take its place in that business.”
