The Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Housing, Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, has disclosed that the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority has received over 1,577 petitions regarding real estate fraud from 2020 till date.
She disclosed this during a press briefing in Alausa, Ikeja, on Thursday.
“We have received well over 1,577 petitions from the inception of the agency in 2020 till date, we have been able to resolve 1,027, and we have eight cases in court concerning real estate fraud,” she said.
She lamented that the sector is polluted with both good and bad developers, adding that she has been calling on brokers, developers, agents, and realtors to come and register to sanitise the real estate sector.
“The bad ones do not make you see the good ones as doing anything. An association still came to my office yesterday, they noted they had about 4,000 people practising real estate as part of their organisation, on asking them how many were registered practitioners, they could not answer.
“I would like to plead if you have issues of agents or developers defrauding potential homeowners, a petition can be written to LASRERA, and I can assure you that a redress would be received within a short period.
“Also, the Attorney General has stated that anything about real estate would get a special court form which makes it faster and ensures that cases do not last more than 90 days, and a maximum of 24 months in court, and then the victims get judgment,” she added.
Odunuga-Bakare noted that there had been collaboration with the private sector and the private sector, adding that the state was open to doing business with the public to bridge the housing deficit gap in the state.
She said, “About two months ago, we collaborated with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, also a section of the Lagos State Real Estate Authority Law noted that can collaborate with law agencies to achieve our aim in curbing this insanity going on in the sector, so we have a good relationship with the EFCC at the moment.
“The day we went there for this collaboration meeting, they have over 1000 cases in regards to real estate fraud before them, and they have been sending some to us as well, the ones we see that are way more than us, we get in touch with them for them to take charge of it and invite the involved developers who are proving to be stubborn. Since the collaboration, a lot of people have come forward to register.”
Speaking on the number of real estate practitioners that have registered with the agency, the Special Adviser disclosed they were less than a thousand.
She added, “At this point, we have less than a thousand real estate practitioners that have registered with the agency, and we have well over a hundred thousand people practicing real estate in Lagos State.”
