Lagos State is regarded as the hub of real estate. Land in Lagos is gold. The real estate purchase is one critical step every person who is gainfully employed is bound to make at one time or another. Apart from having a place to call home, real estate has become one of the steady investment alternatives in Nigeria. Nowadays, it seems most people are more focused on buying land in Lagos.
First,
it is advised that anyone seeking to buy land in Lagos should engage the
services of a lawyer to help trace and search the title of the property he or
she intends to purchase.
Below
are things you should consider before paying for the property.
How
much is the total cost involved?
Real
estate generally costs money and time. Before you go into buying a piece of
land, you need to prepare and ask questions so you can spend your money wisely. The cost of land in Nigeria varies as it is determined by the size of the property,
the area and other factors.
In
Nigeria, highly commercialized areas like Lagos face the issue of land grabbers
(Omo Onile) and it will be nice to make enquiries about these people so you
won’t overspend. Asking questions like What kind of expenses can you expect to
incur when buying a vacant lot? will help you plan your purchase well.
Will
utilities be assessed?
If
you are looking to invest in property and just leave it the way it is, you
might have no use for utilities. Utilities like power, water and light might be
an issue if you buy land in a very deserted undeveloped area. If you’re close
enough to local resources to run in some or all of your utilities don’t pay for
it yet, consider the next question.
Is
it easy to access the main roads?
Road
access might seem a no-brainer but if you live in Nigeria, you’ll realise it’s
surprisingly a complex issue. In most of the major parts of Lagos state, access
to major roads is rarely a problem as you can access the roads without issues.
In rural areas, land for sale could potentially be cut off from a major road
and be available only via private access.
Is
the land surveyed?
To
be sure you are getting exactly what you paid for, a certified surveyor can
tell you and show you the exact boundaries of the land you are considering, so
you can purchase with confidence.
Speaking
to Lagos Chapter of REDAN Chairman, Dr Bamidele Onalaja, he shed more light on
the issue.
"Land
allocation is very technical. It’s not as simple as everybody thinks. Being a
mortgage banker for 13 years had enabled me to know some of these
technicalities. I went into the property business after I had worked with a
mortgage bank and immediately after I left there I started RevolutionPlus
Property about 8 years ago.
We
buy our land majorly from the “Omo-Onile”
because
we're in the business of affordable housing. For now, we are not building high
scrappers or Twenty-floor houses. Our focus now at RevolutionPlus is to provide
affordable housing for people who never thought they could have a house. That’s
our focus and that’s what God called us to do. Even in our luxury homes, it’s
called affordable luxury homes, when you compare it with others.
We
started almost about 8 years ago and over this period, we have allocated so many
estates. If I can remember, we have allocated about 38 estates some of these
estates contain houses and people are living inside. We have videos, pictures
and evidence to show the extent and how far we have gone on allocation.
When
you buy: for example: if you buy 50 acres of land and you go into the market to
sell. Sometimes we probably sell beyond what we acquired because we usually
have esteemed customers who want more. What we do in that case is to acquire
more land beside the estate.
So
when you buy the land, you will have to put the land in a layout, into plots
and from there you start selling. Then you also do your survey. Let me remind
you that, the money you are charged for land is different from survey money
because it’s going into the surveyor’s pocket. And you are also going to pay
for development. But after paying for land, people thought they have paid
everything in full which is true but in the form you are given when you want to
enter the agreement, all these statutory monies are there for every client to
see and you pay for any land".
–ISAAC ABIMBADE with additional info online)
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