Over 1,577 petitions on real estate fraud have been received by the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority since 2020, according to Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, Special Adviser on Housing to the Lagos State Governor.
At a briefing held at the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority office in Alausa, Ikeja, she made this revelation.
“Since the agency’s founding in 2020, we have received well over 1,577 petitions. Of those, we have been able to resolve 1,027, and we currently have eight QL cases involving real estate fraud pending in court,” she stated.
She bemoaned the fact that both good and bad developers have tainted the industry, saying that she has been urging brokers, developers, agents, and realtors to register in order to clean up the real estate industry.
An association came to my office yesterday and stated they had roughly 4,000 real estate practitioners as members of their organization. When I asked them how many of them were registered practitioners, they were unable to provide an answer. The bad ones do not give the impression that the good ones are doing anything.
If you have concerns about agents or developers misleading prospective homeowners, please write a petition to LASRERA. I guarantee that you will receive a response quickly. Additionally, the Attorney General has declared that any case involving real estate will be handled through a special court form, expediting the process and guaranteeing that cases are resolved in no more than 90 days and up to 24 months of court proceedings before the victims receive a verdict.
In order to close the state’s housing deficit, Odunuga-Bakare pointed out that there had been cooperation with the private sector and the private sector. She also stated that the state was willing to do business with the public.
She stated, “We have a good relationship with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at the moment. About two months ago, we collaborated with them. Additionally, a section of the Lagos State Real Estate Authority Law noted that we can collaborate with law agencies to achieve our aim in curbing this insanity going on in the sector.”
We got in touch with them so they could take charge of it and invite the involved developers who are proving to be stubborn. On the day we went there for this collaboration meeting, they had over 1000 cases related to real estate fraud before them, and they had been sending some to us as well. Many have come forward to register since the collaboration began.
The Special Adviser revealed that there were fewer than a thousand real estate practitioners registered with the organization.
“At this point, we have well over 100,000 people practicing real estate in Lagos State, and we have less than a thousand real estate practitioners registered with the agency,” the speaker continued.