Estate agents association tasked to check quacks

       

Hon. Jimoh Ajao

• .As NIESV  launch the Association of Estate Agents in Nigeria

By Olumide T. Agunbiade

Lagos State residents and real estate investors have been warned against the activities of dubious estate agents who are already marketing a yet to be launched real estate property of the Lagos State Government.

Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Housing, Hon. Jimoh Ajao, who raised the alarm at the formal launch of the Association of Estate Agents in Nigeria (AEAN) by the parent body, the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, charged the newly inaugurated Interim Board to work with the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department to check the quacks in the industry.

Expressing concerns on a seeming absence of regulation in the practice of Estate agency, Ajao said, “It is a source of worry that estate agency practice seems to be open to everyone and dubious persons are taking advantage of this to fleece innocent members of the public. The activities of the fraudsters is so alarming that even the properties of the Lagos State Government which is yet to be launched are being marketed. The Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department was set up to ensure transparency, accountability and inspire confidence in the real estate industry.”

The President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Mr. Emeka Eleh, also charged members to work to ensure the realisation of the cardinal objectives of ensuring standardisation, regulation and professionalism in order to restore confidence in the Real Estate industry.

“What we are doing here today has been long in coming, because we have always believed that estate agency practice must be regulated. NIESV is interested in ensuring that in closing real estate deals, people must have the same confidence in the Estate agent as they now have in members of NIESV”, Eleh remarked.