The National President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, Akintoye Adeoye, has cautioned the Lagos State Government against describing estates without layout plan approval as “illegal”, warning that such language could negatively impact the property market.
“These developers may not have layout plan approval, but branding the estate as illegal is a very strong word, and the government should be careful with the use of the word, because we have owners of this project, we have subscribers to this project, and such language will definitely demarket the estate. It’s not just the developers,” Adeoye said.
He explained that labelling estates as illegal could create panic among potential investors: “So, people will begin to be afraid of investing in Lagos estate, and it creates a shock wave; it creates a kind of trepidation, and it affects the markets.
“There are other words that can be used to describe such a scenario; for example, if the government put it out there that we have 176 estates that require regularisation of their layout plan approval, then probably the underlisted estates should contact the Ministry of Environment and Planning for the regularisation of their layout plan approval within 21 days.”
According to him, such an approach would be “quite mild” and would prevent unnecessary discouragement of property buyers.
“That is quite mild, and that will not create shock and discourage people that are patronising developers or buying property in the estate. For example, we have some of the developers whose names are published on that list that have the same document; they have the layout approval; they have it already, so the word “regularisation” will be better so that people that don’t have it can start to process it, and people that have it can tell the government, “Please, I have it, but we have listed the names of these projects and these estates, and you call them illegal, and we have some of our members that bought their land from the government, obtained C of O, and obtained layout approval, and their names are on that list.”
Adeoye emphasised the importance of measured language to avoid worsening investor anxiety. “So, I think that the government should just tone down their words so that the market will not receive further shock waves, because the market is already tense, and we should not make it more tense,” he stated.
He, however, acknowledged the strong collaboration between REDAN and the Lagos State Government: “The Lagos State government is collaborating very well with our association; we partner together on so many fronts. For example, we are doing certification of members through training. Lagos State is actively participating in this process, so there are good allies, and we are working together very well, but as the president of the association, what I’m just saying is that they should just use words and language that don’t create tension and create fear in the minds of subscribers.”
In recent weeks, the Lagos State Government, through the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, released a list of over 170 estates it described as “illegal developments” for lacking the required layout plan approvals.
The announcement sparked controversy across the real estate sector, with many developers and property owners expressing concern that the term “illegal” could tarnish reputations and discourage investment.zz
