The Lagos State House of Assembly said that it would pass a new bill to regulate real estate operations in the state.
The proposed bill, entitled: “Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority,” which aims to check the excesses of operators in the real estate industry and reduce quackery in the sector, went through public hearing, yesterday, at the Assembly pavilion.
Chairman, Committee on Housing, Bisi Yusuff, who spoke while addressing experts in real estate sector at the hearing, yesterday, said it had become necessary for the Assembly to take the issue confronting the real estate seriously through necessary legislation.
Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, who was represented by his deputy, Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, said that public hearing was part of the practice of the Assembly. He said that real estate was an important sector in the state that must be regulated.
The Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade, said the bill was divided into 37 sections and that the regulatory authority would be headed by a chairman, who shall be a person of repute and a professional in his area of practice with not less than 15 years of cognate experience.
Meanwhile, the National President of Estate Rents and Commission Agents Association of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Alenkhe said that estate surveyors and valuers were omitted in the composition of the board and that the bill was an amendment to the 2007 law on real estate.
Also speaking, Mr. Ayobayo Babade from the Association of Estate Agents in Nigeria advised that young people should be encouraged and included in the board.
In the same vein, Mr. Bolaji Raymond from the association said that the bill did not provide for parallel regulation of the people in informal and formal sectors of the real estate. Adding that there was no penalty for not meeting the requirements for registration and that the only stated penalty was for those that had registered.
However, Mr. Olukayode Olatunji, a lawyer, faulted the Assembly for holding the public hearing, saying that issues relating to who has the right to control real estate in the state is currently before a court of law.
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