By Maduka Nweke
Land grabbing practice by the Omoniles that has been a thorn in the neck of many Lagosians may soon become a thing of the past going by the promise of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to order complete excision on untitled land across the state.
The directive has remained a major turning point in land administration in Lagos, since the exercise would enable the State Government to carry out documented delineation on communal land and land owned by the families.
The governor who gave the order at the Lagos Real Estate Market Place Conference and Exhibitions organised by the State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island said, the two-day event with the theme: “Lagos: 21st Century Real Estate Investment Hub”, is the second edition to be held by the agency.
Land is a limited asset in Lagos, which is a coastal state. Activities of land-grabbers have created an unpredictable climate in land acquisition in Lagos, robbing private real estate investors and individuals of fortunes.
Sanwo-Olu said a technical committee will be set up to fine-tune the framework for the excision process on untitled land, with the objective to granting Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) to land owners for transparent sales of the asset.
The Governor condemned an effort by state officials to frustrate and sabotage the full take-off of the State’s Enterprise Geographic Information System (e-GIS) project initiated to automate approval of land surveys and allocation titles in one talk shop. Sanwo-Olu issued a stern warning, saying he would be ruthless in purging out saboteurs in the ranks of Government.
He said: “One of the issues we are working on is the ownership of land. There is a large parcel of land across Lagos that doesn’t have the Government title.
“It is to announce to this gathering that I’ve made up my mind that we are going to do excision for untitled land. This process will kick off next year and we will set up a committee whose composition will represent all traditional divisions in Lagos. With equity and fairness, we will yield proper titles on all the land, so that the issue of land grabbing can be reduced to minimum.
“We will also be carrying out genuine reform in our Survey Department. We need to have our e-GIS platform up and running after 10 years that it was initiated. I’m expressing my disappointment in some Government officials sabotaging these efforts. I will look for the culprits and I will be ruthless in meting out punishment. I will ensure these saboteurs have no place in my Government.”
By next year, Sanwo-Olu said a new policy of monthly tenancy on property occupancy would kick off in Lagos. The concept, he said, is not to punish the landlord or reduce the expected revenue of the property owner.
He said monthly tenancy would ease off pressure of yearly rent on tenants, as the new policy is designed to make people pay their rents according to their monthly earnings. The policy, Sanwo-Olu said, emanated from an agreement reached by association of tenants, consortium of financiers and the Government.
Addressing the cause of high affordability of property in Lagos, the Governor said the State’s partnership with the private sector had raised the housing stock but added that non-availability of long-tenure mortgage bonds made it impossible for low-income earners to benefit.
The government, he said, is thinking out of the box to design a financing model that would reduce burden on mortgage applicants, while also charging real estate developers to reduce the cost of developing property by engaging local competence for skills outsourced to foreigners.
He said: “We should not just build property only for consumers, we must also build skills and integrate them in our built environment to showcase great output. Technical and vocational skills are things we must deliberately harness and reflect in our work. At the end of the day, we must be able to design a housing development and ownership model that is fit for our purpose and peculiar to our local needs.”