What You Need to Know About the Property Market (i)

By Mayowa Akinsola

Simply put, the property market is a place where willing sellers and willing buyers exchange landed property whether developed or undeveloped, at mutually agreed prices. A bit of imagination needs to be in play here because landed property has one unique quality; it is immovable. Hence, you have to imagine a market where the product, in this case landed property, cannot be brought to a common point for you to see. You have to go where it is.

The means by which ownership changes hands from a willing seller to a willing buyer is by a set of papers and documents called title deeds. In Nigeria, they could vary from a deed of conveyance, deed of assignment, deed of gift, to certificate of occupancy or land agreement and so on. Once this exchange has taken place, presumably after payment, then the sale is complete and the next thing usually is to take actual possession of the property.

As simple as this whole process may sound, in reality, the Nigerian property market, has its own peculiarities which requires some understanding. The vendor (seller) of a property or his agent may set a high or maximum price level (sometimes this could be prohibitive), which is called the asking price. The practice and indeed expectation is for the prospective purchaser or buyer to negotiate this asking price to a comfortable level or point of mutual agreement. Sometimes, the difference between these two figures is so high that anyone accustomed to the UK market would find it strange since negotiations in the UK market are a little more rigid. In several states in the United States, there exists the MLS (Multiple Listing Services) which networks information between the market operators by computer rather beautifully. This sort of sophistication does not exist in the Nigerian market. What we do have, however unsophisticated and convoluted it may sometimes seem, is a property market where the medium of exchange is through estate agents and go-betweens, to whom vendors take their properties to sell and purchasers visit in order to be informed about the property market in their area of choice. It is through these estate agents that properties are inspected after which negotiations and payments are made.

The most direct and common way of entering the property market is through appointed estate agents, sometimes professionally called Estate Surveyors and Valuers in Nigeria. Others include Legal Practitioners, Real Estate Consultants e.t.c. These people have offices all over the town or city where you are interested in purchasing property. Signboards lead to these offices, other times information is passed through people who have used their services.

Adverts and publications in newspapers and magazines are also sources of entering the market or locating estate agents. Whatever the source of information, it is important at this level to ensure you are dealing with the right source of agent. Usually, the various estate agents have a list of properties for sale in their offices. This is available, on request. Some offices have bulletin boards which show which properties are on the market. One last and significant way of getting to know about what is going on in the market is through sign/notice boards hanging in strategic places in town which read, “To Let” or “For Sale” or sometimes more subtly, “Fore more information about this property, contact, ABZ & Company Tel……080….

Once you are sufficiently interested in a property, you should request for a letter of offer which contain the details, description and terms/conditions o dealing with the subject property from the firm in charge.

These days, this is not always done except when dealing with trained professionals who appreciate the need for it. Before this, there is acceptance whether written or verbal (advisably written) and finally, consideration money paid to conclude).

Akinsola, an Estate Management graduate , is a Chartered Accountant and a former banker.