Real Estate Agency Practice in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Real Estate agency is essentially a land based profession that deals with the business of buying, selling and leasing of interests in real estate, which may be land or building or the interest therein. Practitioners of this trade are generally addressed as Estate agents in our environment. Considering the importance of housing in mans hierarchy of needs and the huge deficit that exists in the housing sector in Nigeria, Real estate agents generally play a very important role in the socio-economic life of the country, Generally a real estate agent is a person, who possesses the authority to act on behalf of another person with a view to establishing contractual relationship between his principal and a third party. The person, who employs the agent, is usually called the principal (olatunji, 2008)

Commercial activities have been on the increase in Nigeria in the past few years. This is also reflected in the fact that there has been an increase in real Estate activities. The Real estate agency practice has therefore in the recent time  become a business for all comers; mechanics, market men, lawyers, taxi driver etc. The practice of real estate Agency in Nigeria at present remains largely unorganized, unregulated and unprofessional. Apart from the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers that has set standards for its practice by its members i.e the Estate Surveyors and Valuers, the large majority of those who practice estate agency do so without the basic training in that field, without any certification or qualification, without any regulation and largely in an unprofessional manner (Gambo & Ashen, 2012)