Stakeholders are advocating a centralised platform to list property to streamline the acquisition and rental processes.
This was the fallout of the Association of Real Estate Agents in Nigeria Summit, themed ‘Building Enduring Partnerships for a Future’, held in Lagos recently.
A former president of the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Emeka Eleh, urged the institute to set up a multiple listing service, a marketplace for real estate.
He said, “Rather than leaving these listing activities to property professionals and centres, it should be done by a standard recognised non-partisan body. Abroad, there are real estate boards in every city, and we know Lagos is a big city where we can have boards like this in different areas.
“Let it be regulated by the NIESV in consonance with the AEN, which means that every member of the NIESV and AEN would list their property on the platform. The good thing is that before listing, the genuineness of the property is ascertained. If this is done in one to two years, it would become the market for real estate, and it would become easier for our members to source data for real estate.”
Reiterating the importance of listing property, the President of FIABCI-Nigeria, Gladstone Opara, noted that it would bring real estate transactions into the public domain.
He said, “The main essence of the listing is that it is only serious-minded transactions that would be dealt with in the sale or rental of property.
“Having a centralised listing system is very important, as we see in other cultures. It helps even in the evaluation of property, and one easily deduces the average price of rent for a particular property.
“In addition, data can easily be collected by calling different estate agents on rent prices in different parts of the country. These are the advantages of a centralised listing of property.”
Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary of the Association of Real Estate Agents in Nigeria stated that the association was at the stage of unveiling multiple listing services that would be regulated to prevent property scams.
