Niesv Launches New Body to Regulate Estate Agency

Respite may soon come the way of people interested in acquiring properties across the country but who had fell into the hands of dubious agents as the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers has set up a body to regulate the activities of all estate agents in the country.

The move became necessary following the poor perception of estate agents as a result of sharp practices associated with them.

Apart from monitoring and regulating the practice, the new body known as the Association of Estate Agents in Nigeria, is expected to restore the image of the profession as the umbrella body for everyone involved in real estate agency.

AEAN’s activities will be guided by NIESV pending when an Annual General Meeting will be convened to elect substantive officers.

NIESV will also work towards the presentation of a bill for government recognition and charter for the association to the National Assembly as well as liaise with the Lagos State Estate Transaction Agency with a view to fashioning out a preeminent role for the association.

While briefing journalists in Lagos on Thursday, the Protem Chairman of the association, Mr. Chudi Ubosi, said membership was open to all professional estate surveyors and valuers, and other interested Nigerians with a minimum of secondary level of education.

He said, “This association was set up in a bid to bring sanity and some measure of control and monitoring, and introduce good practices and make sure that estate agency, as it were, is run the way it should be. It is open to membership from all cadres; this will enable them to go back to the society and practice with some measure of professionalism.

“Estate surveyors and valuers have had a very bad name in perception and publicity. Our perception in the public sphere is poor, we are seen as people who inflate rental values of property and let one property to many people and collect money. Estate agency is part of our profession and we felt that the only way we can tackle it is to set up a parallel body consisting of estate agents.

“The essence is to take control of the estate agency practice. For a long time, we have had everybody practicing the profession; it has become an all comers affair because there is a huge demand for property.”

Ubosi said the association would introduce best practices and bring in as many people who wished to practice estate agency under the fold.

He added that the association would conduct periodic trainings for its members on the rules of the profession so that they could understand what it meant to practice real estate agency, as well as conduct quarterly induction ceremonies for new members.

According to him, the association will have three categories of membership, including the certified estate agents made up of professional estate surveyors and valuers; registered estate agents made up of professionals from other fields; and estate brokers for people with minimum qualification of secondary school certificate.