The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to establish the Real Estate Regulatory Council of Nigeria. The bill is tagged: The Real Estate Regulatory Council of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2021.
The council, when established would, among others, curb fraudulent practices to ensure that the real estate business conforms with the National Building Code in Nigeria.
What the committee has said
The bill was sponsored by Senator Aliyu Wamakko and was read for the first time on April 28, 2021, and it scaled the second reading on June 22, 2021. Senator Nicholas Tofowomo presented the report on behalf of the Committee Chairman, Ibrahim Shekarau.
He said the establishment of the Real Estate Council of Nigeria would provide efficient, effective, and transparent administration of the business of real estate development in Nigeria. The lawmaker said the council would be responsible for prescribing minimum standards for the conduct of the businesses of real estate development across the country.
He recalled that the bill seeking to establish the Real Estate Council of Nigeria was passed by both chambers of the eighth National Assembly, but was not assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the President’s decision to withhold assent to the bill as a result of certain observations raised by stakeholders at the time.
He said, “Those observations have been taken care of in this report by the Committee following the engagement with stakeholders to ensure that real estate business in Nigeria conforms with the Money Laundering Act 2011 (as amended) and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit Act 2018 in terms of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing due diligence compliance.”
What you should expect from the bill
For a while now, the real estate sector in Nigeria has suffered at the hands of fraudulent developers who have brought disrepute to the sector, people have been scammed because the sector has not been regulated. Some developers deliver low-quality properties and sell for exorbitant prices without anyone to checkmate this. However, the time for such unscrupulous and corrupt practices to come to an end is near, if the Real Estate Regulatory Council of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2021 is anything to go by.
With the passage of this bill, we can hope that it will help bring some form of sanity to the real estate sector and check the unscrupulous activities of property developers in Nigeria.
Cc: punchng & Nairametrics