Lagos State is regarded as the hub of real estate. Land in Lagos is gold. The real estate purchase is one critical step every person who is gainfully employed is bound to make at one time or another. Apart from having a place to call home, real estate has become one of the steady investment alternatives in Nigeria. Nowadays, it seems most people are more focused on buying land in Lagos.
First, it is advised that anyone seeking to buy land in Lagos should engage the services of a lawyer to help trace and search the title of the property he or she intends to purchase.
Below are things you should consider before paying for the property.
How much is the total cost involved?
Real estate generally costs money and time. Before you go into buying a piece of land, you need to prepare and ask questions so you can spend your money wisely. The cost of land in Nigeria varies as it is determined by the size of the property, the area and other factors.
In Nigeria, highly commercialized areas like Lagos face the issue of land grabbers (Omo Onile) and it will be nice to make enquiries about these people so you won’t overspend. Asking questions like What kind of expenses can you expect to incur when buying a vacant lot? will help you plan your purchase well.
Will utilities be assessed?
If you are looking to invest in property and just leave it the way it is, you might have no use for utilities. Utilities like power, water and light might be an issue if you buy land in a very deserted undeveloped area. If you’re close enough to local resources to run in some or all of your utilities don’t pay for it yet, consider the next question.
Is it easy to access the main roads?
Road access might seem a no-brainer but if you live in Nigeria, you’ll realise it’s surprisingly a complex issue. In most of the major parts of Lagos state, access to major roads is rarely a problem as you can access the roads without issues. In rural areas, land for sale could potentially be cut off from a major road and be available only via private access.
Is the land surveyed?
To be sure you are getting exactly what you paid for, a certified surveyor can tell you and show you the exact boundaries of the land you are considering, so you can purchase with confidence.
Speaking to Lagos Chapter of REDAN Chairman, Dr Bamidele Onalaja, he shed more light on the issue.
“Land allocation is very technical. It’s not as simple as everybody thinks. Being a mortgage banker for 13 years had enabled me to know some of these technicalities. I went into the property business after I had worked with a mortgage bank and immediately after I left there I started RevolutionPlus Property about 8 years ago.
We buy our land majorly from the “Omo-Onile”
because we’re in the business of affordable housing. For now, we are not building high scrappers or Twenty-floor houses. Our focus now at RevolutionPlus is to provide affordable housing for people who never thought they could have a house. That’s our focus and that’s what God called us to do. Even in our luxury homes, it’s called affordable luxury homes, when you compare it with others.
We started almost about 8 years ago and over this period, we have allocated so many estates. If I can remember, we have allocated about 38 estates some of these estates contain houses and people are living inside. We have videos, pictures and evidence to show the extent and how far we have gone on allocation.
When you buy: for example: if you buy 50 acres of land and you go into the market to sell. Sometimes we probably sell beyond what we acquired because we usually have esteemed customers who want more. What we do in that case is to acquire more land beside the estate.
So when you buy the land, you will have to put the land in a layout, into plots and from there you start selling. Then you also do your survey. Let me remind you that, the money you are charged for land is different from survey money because it’s going into the surveyor’s pocket. And you are also going to pay for development. But after paying for land, people thought they have paid everything in full which is true but in the form you are given when you want to enter the agreement, all these statutory monies are there for every client to see and you pay for any land”.
–ISAAC ABIMBADE with additional info online)
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