Professional bodies back a real estate regulator but warn against overlapping mandates
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Nigerian built-environment associations have laid out competing proposals on the proposed National Real Estate Regulatory Authority, backing tougher consumer protection while resisting any dilution of their own statutory powers.
Professional associations in Nigeria's built environment have set out proposals for a unified regulatory framework for real estate, telling lawmakers that professional misconduct, fraudulent property transactions and weak consumer protection must be addressed without creating overlapping regulators. The submissions were made at a stakeholder conference organised by the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives with the House Committee on Housing and Habitat, which is considering the proposed National Real Estate Regulatory Authority (NRERA).
The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), through its president Professor Kingsley Ogboi, backed the new authority and asked that the law reserve a board seat for a registered town planner nominated by the institute. NITP also wants the Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria recognised as the statutory regulator of town planners, a mandatory role for registered planners in development processes, and a Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate inside NRERA headed by a qualified town planner.
The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) warned against provisions that could duplicate or undermine the Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria, whose mandate under the Cap E13 Act covers registration, discipline and professional practice. Its president, Muhammad Bature, said NRERA should complement existing institutions rather than create conflicting mandates, and called for professional representation in the authority's governance.
The Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) proposed an industry-led, government-supervised model built on six pillars: registration and disclosure, transaction standards, off-plan safeguards, consumer complaints, housing data and institutional coordination. Its president, Oba Akintoye Adeoye, said developers should be registered in separate categories for developers, development companies, project promoters and individual projects, with compliance requirements proportionate to size and risk, backed by a national register covering beneficial ownership and track records.
On off-plan sales, REDAN recommended that projects be registered with NRERA before public marketing or the collection of deposits, with purchasers' funds held in regulated escrow or ring-fenced project accounts and released in stages against independently verified construction progress. It also proposed a digital complaints platform and periodic certification by registered architects, quantity surveyors and engineers.
The Cromwell Centre for Research in Housing and Urban Development, in a memorandum signed by chief executive Sola Enitan, went further, proposing a principal real estate regulation and transaction management law, an Office of the Valuer-General of the Federation to handle market governance and federal asset valuation, a National Real Estate Transaction Management System and a specialised real estate tribunal. It also argued that the legislation must clearly limit federal scope and stop NRERA from exercising powers constitutionally reserved for states, particularly over land administration.