When professionals arise to sanitise, regulate estate agency practice

If there is any otherwise professional practice that is very important to human settlement yet so commonplace with the cheapest and easiest entry point, that practice is estate agency.

No wonder, therefore, it has become an all-comers affair, harbouring in its fold people of diverse backgrounds including carpenters, bricklayers and even retired civil servants who, with their unwholesome activities, have given the practice bad reputation and severe image problem.

Worried about all these and determined to change the face of this business which they are empowered by law to practice and provide leadership in, estate surveyors under the aegis of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) recently took a bold step to sanitise and regulate that practice.

“It is a globalised world and people are getting more sophisticated by the day. Nigerians are becoming more conscious of their rights, the real estate business and also the kind of service they get. NIESV has noticed the incursion of all manner of people into the practice and so decided to do something,” Chudi Ubosi said in his welcome address at the inauguration of Association of Estate Agents in Nigeria (AEAN) which is being promoted by NIESV.

Ubosi, who is the chairman of the association’s technical committee, noted that estate agency has garnered so much bad reputation that people now see the practitioners as fraudsters who are out to dupe prospective tenants and home buyers, collect money from multiple tenants and run away.

The association, he stressed, is aimed to sanitise and regulate the practice, adding that there are more benefits practitioners would get from joining the association than when they do it alone.

“Members will benefit from this association because we are going to build a network and a database to help members; those who don’t have the requisite qualification will be trained; we will be working with government and relevant stakeholders to bring respect and credibility to the practice,” he assured.

Emeka Eleh, NIESV president, said the inauguration of the association was an extension of the consumer protection struggle, explaining that the association is also aimed to protect real estate consumers many of whom had fallen victims of quacks in the practice.

He said those who practice estate agency must have relevant knowledge and capacity to serve the public, which is why they have school certificate minimum entry qualification into the association. “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,” he remarked.

Commending this initiative which he emphasised was long overdue, Jimoh Ajao, special adviser, Housing, to the Lagos State governor, urged the association to work with the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD) to check the quacks in the industry.

Jimoh said activities of fraudsters in this practice are so alarming that even the property of the Lagos Home Ownership Scheme (LagosHOMS), which is yet to be launched, are being marketed, assuring that LASRETRAD was set up to ensure transparency, accountability and to inspire confidence in the real estate industry.