Lagos tightens noose around estate agency practice, plans training academy

In the coming days and months, it would no longer be business-as-usual in the estate agency practice in Lagos State as the state government is out now with stringent regulations and codes of conduct for practitioners.

The state government says it is worried by the fraudulent and unwholesome activities of bad elements in the practice whose mission is to defraud and extort money from unsuspecting members of the public

looking for houses to buy or rent, and to underscore its resolve to sanitise this practice, the state government has created a department in the Ministry of Housing known as Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD).

Jimoh Ajao, the special adviser to the governor on housing, explained at the inauguration of the department, about a year ago, that it was set up to monitor compliance with the state’s Tenancy and Criminal Laws as they relate to real estate transaction and other legislation on land transactions in the state;

license estate agents, issue and renew their licenses annually and ensure that payment of necessary charges and fees are made.

Also weekend at a workshop organised by the department for the estate agents, Ajao announced that a training academy was being planned for the untrained and unenlightened estate agents because, according to him, confidence in the business of real estate in the state must be established.

In his keynote address at the workshop with the theme, ‘Code of Conduct of Estate Agency Practice in Lagos State’, Ade Ipaye, the state’s attorney general and commissioner for justice, noted that housing was critical to good governance, stressing that estate agency practice was of essence to the state.

He noted that the challenge of government’s effort at sanitising this practice is never to go back, hence the need for the practitioners to take LASRETRAD seriously and ensure that they not only get registered but also comply with the necessary regulations and code of conduct for the practice.