Apparently worried by the lack of valuation standard in the real estate sector, the federal authorities have urged the estate surveyors to develop transparent, simple and comprehensive estate valuation data.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who gave the charge while inaugurating the members of Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) led by its Chairman, Olayinka Sonaike expressed concern over the rising costs of acquiring lands and other landed property.
Fashola who observed that the current values of landed property does not reflect the prevailing social and economic downturn and realities in the country, tasked the board to come out with stringent regulatory measures to ensure that the prices are in tune with economic realities.
He said that the negative impact of the rising costs can easily be seen in the increasing costs of doing business and the declining rating of Nigeria in ease of doing business.
The Minister maintained that land constitute a major and critical assets in any business formation, be it either micro, small, medium or large scale enterprise, one needs land in form of space to transact the business or even where to live as residence.
He said: “For me, I think the most important message is to pose the question to you whether the current land valuation systems and values are consistent with the realities of our economy. You as experts must answer that question.
“In a very challenging economy, where cash is clearly tight, is the market value responding appropriately? Because just recently, I checked in property markets in some other jurisdictions, and because there is global economic slowdown, what we see is that people are offering discounts in order to ensure optimum occupancy.
“But I’m not sure that the practice is the same here. So, are these values consistent with reality? Why are we not seeing rates, rents and values drop? Why are we having many houses unoccupied while many people are looking for accommodation?”
Fashola stressed that the ESVRBON must find solutions to the issues to ensure that real estate contributes to the growth of the economy as the Federal Government implements the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
Responding, Sonaike appealed for collaboration of the ministry with the estate surveyors in the implementation of the 10,000 –unit housing programme in each state of the federation.He assured the minister that the board would do their best, but called for budgetary allocation to the board.
[ad_2]
Guardian
