EditorReal estate professional, Otunba Niyi Olagoke, has said that unprofessional house agents have made real estate and property leasing a difficult task in Nigeria today, especially in Lagos.
The Head, Akin Abrahams Associate (AKAA) who is an associate member of the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), said this during an interview with Prime Business Africa.
He noted that apart from the CAC that issues license to businesses, there are several regulatory bodies that oversee the activities of real estate, house agents, property valuers among others.
Olagoke said, “these unprofessional agents have soiled their hands into unreasonable things that makes professionals find it difficult to carry out their duties without the fear of scam from clients.”
The real estate practitioner noted that mediocrity can’t be equal to professionalism in real estate industry, adding that everyone in the industry should get licensed because the seal of the license would not allow for mediocrity and dubiousness.
He stated that the regulating body would issue appropriate sanction that follows any report to the association from clients which couldd lead to suspension for 10 or more years.
“Any house agent that is certified and licensed by Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, (NIESV), Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) and other bodies that regulates the practice of real estate and house agency will not dare go against the law that guides these institutions because the penalty is grievous”.
Otunba Olagoke told Prime Business Africa that house agents collecting mobilization fee from clients are unprofessional because there’s no professional backing that mobilization fee should be charged.
“Collecting mobilization fee is not right, however, they only need to register their clients, but collecting mobilization fee from them per house/apartment inspection is not done.
“Although, I don’t blame them, they simply don’t want to lose their customers. For example, if customer A wants an apartment, customer A can contact more than 1 agent because customer A knows that it is free.”
“On the other hand,” Otunba continued, “if customer A pays N5,000 mobilization fee to an agent, he won’t want to pay the same N5,000 to another agent, he however disregard and undermine collection of mobilization fee from clients looking for apartment. This is unprofessional,” he said.
The estate valuer said that if any agent gets an apartment or a house for their clients, the agent’s commission is 10% and he sees no reason why agents should collect mobilization fee from clients, adding that “90% of landlords dictate rents on properties”
The CEO of AKAA said that hike in the prices of house/apartment is dependent on the landlord, the agent/agents contracted by the landlord, market survey and trend.
He said, “A landlord can contract an agent to lease a house on the island for N1million, meanwhile, such houses are leased out for N800,000, the agent is then in a tight corner where he is unable to do anything than either let the landlord get another agent to market the house or the landlord cuts his price down to the market trend of the area where the house is situated”.
AKAA Boss however noted that on the other hand, some agents would go on and decide to market the property especially if it is in a location that is in high demand.
He urged people who are in search of accommodation to be care to avoid falling victim to fake housing agents that would show them fake apartments and collect money from them, advising them to make sure they seek corporate entities who are registered under regulatory bodies that can be reported to, if they are defrauded.
Also in a chat with Prime Business Africa, a house hunter, Mrs. Kemi Lawal, stated that house hunting in Nigeria has proven to be very difficult because of the presence of dubious house agents especially in Lagos.
She said this while lamenting over extortion by agents which they called “mobilization fee”.
She said: “These agents are dubious people, they take people to apartments that are not palatable, after collecting mobilization money.
“The mobilization money they collect is per apartment they take you to and you will be the one to pay for the transport if the agent doesn’t have any means of transportation.
“Why can’t they sacrifice mobilization fee for the love of their job without attaching monetary gains, Lawal rhetorically asked.”
She said that the money house agents collect per apartment is N5,000, adding that it is dubious.
“Imagine collecting N5,000 for mobilization fee and they have added their gains to the house rent, it’s just dubiousness,” Lawal said.
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