In order to speed up the rental and purchase processes, stakeholders are pushing for a centralized platform for property listings.

This was the fallout of the Association of Real Estate Agents in Nigeria Summit, themed ‘Building Enduring Partnerships for a Future’, held in Lagos recently.

Emeka Eleh, a former president of the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, has called on the institute to set up a multiple listing service, a marketplace for real estate.

He said, “Rather than leaving these listing activities to property professionals and centres, it should be done by a standard recognised non-partisan body. Abroad, there are real estate boards in every city, and we know Lagos is a big city where we can have boards like this in different areas.

“Let it be regulated by the NIESV in consonance with the AEN, which means that every member of the NIESV and AEN would list their property on the platform. The good thing is that before listing, the genuineness of the property is ascertained. If this is done in one to two years, it would become the market for real estate, and it would become easier for our members to source data for real estate.”

Also speaking, Gladstone Opara, the President of FIABCI-Nigeria, stated that it would bring real estate transaction into the public domain.

He said, “The main essence of the listing is that it is only serious-minded transactions that would be dealt with in the sale or rental of property.

“Having a centralised listing system is very important, as we see in other cultures. It helps even in the evaluation of property, and one easily deduces the average price of rent for a particular property.

“In addition, data can easily be collected by calling different estate agents on rent prices in different parts of the country. These are the advantages of a centralised listing of property.”