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In a bid to sanitize the real estate sector, the Lagos state government has made it mandatory for practitioners like house agents, property developers and professionals in the real estate sector to register with the state. This was announced via Lagos State’s Twitter handle, @followlasg.
Speaking during the launch of the website on Thursday at Alausa Ikeja, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka said this became necessary in order to capture and update a unified central database of real estate practitioners and their activities.
In her statement, she said, “We are well aware of the trend of fraudulent practices of some Real Estate Agents and Property Developers, this is reflected in the complaints received by the Agency in recent times from residents who had fallen victims to fake Real Estate Practitioners and Property Developers while seeking for accommodation, purchase or sale of property, hence the need to have a comprehensive database that can be used to curb these fraudulent practices in the sector.”
Benson-Awoyinka said that it had become important to sanitize the sector, which has been bedeviled by lots of fraudulent practices, because of the state’s status as the commercial and economic nerve centre of Nigeria and Africa, with lots of investments opportunities. She also said that the Governor had approved change of name of the government department, from Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department to Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA).
According to her, part of the mandate of the new office includes the preparation of rules and regulations for the practice of estate agency and other connected matters in the state, identification of persons eligible to be licensed as estate agents and renewal of annual licenses, sanction of unlicensed estate agency practitioners in the state, as well as the investigation of complaints and petitions against licensed estate agency practitioners, amongst others.
The Special Adviser pointed out that the website www.lasrera.com houses a brief history of the agency’s initiatives, aims and objectives, commitment to the people, a complaint section and a registration portal which allows practitioners to upload documents, stressing that the Agency also has social media handles for effective management and communication amongst the stakeholders.