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What They Want Him To Do Quickly
This is not a good time for many real estate developers in Lagos. It is a trying time for for many of them, as the rising cost of housing materials, high cost of diesel, and inflation have become the major threat to the sector. Despite coping with many of these factors, the developers are still being faced with fraud in the system like CofO, multiple regulatory government agencies etc.
Property developers have been badly affected especially this year. Most of them have been speaking to the government to come in and help the sector. They are of the opinion that it’s only government policies that can change the narrative as most of them are helpless. Many of them are in debt as a result of huge loans they took from banks.
In this report, City People ISAAC ABIMBADE (08155107955) brings you 5 issues currently affecting real estate business in Lagos.
ISSUE OF MULTIPLE CofO
This has affected and hurt many real estate business this year. It’s a major issue in Lagos presently where by, a property firm acquires an expanse of land with a genuine C of O, verified in Alausa” but that land sometimes leads to litigation over multiple issuing of Cof O. According to many real estate developers, some of these land are bought through the Lagos state government with a verified CofO but somebody will just come from no where after the property has been bought with another CofO and they are all genuine. Most of the time when you go back to verify the title, you find out that the one you thought was genuine has been cleared off their records.
This was a case of Dr Muibi Kehinde Hammed and many others developers in Lagos.
TOO MANY GOVT REGULATORY AGENCIES
This is has been said on many occasions by the Lagos real estate developers as one of the bottlenecks in the sector. In the housing or real estate sector alone, if you have to develop a property in Lagos, you will go through at least 7 agencies before you can be cleared to build. Apart from money that will be spent, it also a waste of time as many funds are sourced through banks.
Some these agencies include: LASPPA (Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority), LASBCA (Lagos State Building Control Agency), Lagos State Safety Commission, LSMTL (Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory), LAWMA (Lagos State Waste Management Authority) – Specifically the Construction, demolition and disaster waste management department, LCDA (Local Council Development Area) AKA “Council and the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA).
BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION
Bribery and corruption are also issues affecting Nigeria’s real estate industry. And it’s also similar to the first point because some of these applications are delayed when the applicant refuses to bribe his way out and it’s been said that, Nigeria suffers from elements of corruption, lack of fundamental data and poor environmental sustainability programs when building large-scale properties.
Bribery and corruption hurt the Nigerian real estate sector. There are instances where developers who have not satisfied the preconditions for allocation of land are granted allocation while those who are qualified are denied.
Currently, the Lagos State Government are demolishing building or structures wrongly built in many parts of the state. But it has been said that some of those structures were approved by the government agencies. Approvals are given to developers who can bribe their ways. That’s the case in Lagos as described by many real estate developers.
DOUBLE TAXATION
Real estate investors are subjected to multiple taxations, the taxes and levies paid by them include development levy, income tax, building plan approval levy, property tax, land use tax etc. And we also have cases whereby real estate investors are expected to pay renovation tax whenever they want to renovate their properties.
LAND REGISTRATION BUREAUCRATIC PROCESS
Top on the list is the bureaucratic process of land registration. Lagos is among the worst when it comes to registering property, according to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2013 report.
The lackadaisical attitude to work is the major cause of undue delay at the land registry. Oftentimes, a developer’s application would pass from office to office over several weeks and by the time the necessary approval is obtained, he may have lost his source of funding or incurred huge interest on a loan obtained for development.
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