Sanwo-Olu urges estate agents to end fraudulent practices in the sector

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday called on real estate practitioners to find lasting solutions to incidences of fraudulent and unprofessional practices in the sector.

Sanwo-Olu said this at a Stakeholders Engagement summit on Real Estate/Agency Business held in Lagos with the theme: Lagos Real Estate: “Achieving 21st Century Compliance”.

“I believe that as professionals, a solution should be found to unscrupulous activities of the few bad eggs impersonating genuine business owners in the real estate sector,”

“As a responsive government, we have a duty to ensure that nobody take undue advantage of the existing gap in the housing sector to exploit or perpetrate fraudulent acts against innocent citizens,” Sanwo-Olu said.

He urged the real estate sector to deploy new technology to create a platform for establishing business relationships with potential clients and also maintain existing ones.

According to the governor, new technology enhances transparency which is essential in establishing and sustaining credibility and integrity in business transactions.

He said that Lagos State Government was determined to strengthen the operations of Lagos State Real Estate Transactions Department (LASRETD) with a view to achieving its 21st century vision in the real estate business.

In her welcome address, Mrs Toke Benson-Awoyinka, Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing, said that a 21st century smart city of Lagos required that all real estate stakeholders and transactions be known and captured electronically with access to data.

She said that there was need to provide and continuously capture and update a Unified Central Database of Real Estate activities within the state while making it accessible for objectives of planning and policy decisions.

“This is relevant due to the increase in fraud and outcry in the state.

“The ultimate aim is to eliminate the bad eggs in the industry and punish in accordance with relevant provision of the state law, thereby restoring the integrity of the profession within the state and Nigeria as a whole,” Benson-Awoyinka said.

According to her, the objective is to protect the citizens from initiation of a transaction to the conclusion of renting, buying, leasing or selling of a property.

She assured that the state government would not fail in its social contract to the people in the protection of lives and property.

In his remarks, Mr Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, Lagos State Commissioner for Housing, said that the summit was a timely response to the need to curb rising fraudulent practices among some unscrupulous real estate agents in their dealings with prospective customers.

He said that LASRETRAD was aimed at standardizing the operations of the real estate business and instilling sanity in the sector for the benefit of all.

NAN reports that Gov. Sanwo-Olu also launched the State’s Real Estate Transaction Department portal where stakeholders in the real estate business and tenants can register and transact genuinely with one another.

The governor said that the portal would help to find lasting solutions to incidences of fraudulent and unprofessional practices observed overtime.

“It is also an avenue for government to formulate ways to regulate, control and professionalise the real estate sector which is one of the extremely important needs of mankind,” he said.