Anambra urges Real Estate developers to help enforce building standards

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By Madu Obi

The Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Dr Law Mefor, has urged members of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Anambra State Chapter, to partner with the state government to end criminality, exploitation, and environmental abuse in the state’s housing sector.

Mefor, who spoke when the REDAN delegation, led by its state chairman, Dr Sunny Nwachukwu, paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Awka, said that the state government was seriously worried about rent exploitation by agents and criminality in land transactions, wondering how agents who did not build the house could collect 10% from both landlord and tenant, sometimes arbitrarily collecting ₦500,000 on a ₦2.5m rent.

He said the government is contemplating legislation to regulate agents' commissions and moderate abnormal rent hikes.

“A landlord moving rent from ₦1m to ₦3m is abnormal and therefore unjust. There has to be a gradual adjustment to protect both landlords and tenants", he said.

On criminality in land transactions, Mefor said the government would no longer tolerate "development levies" imposed by youth cliques in places like Okpoko, Obosi, and Oba, among others, and described the practice of selling one parcel of land to multiple buyers as “financial crime” that is prosecutable.

The commissioner disclosed that Governor Soludo’s model of economic development is to provide land at a cost for private sector-led high-rise development and not bungalows.

“Anambra is the second-smallest state by landmass after Lagos and is shrinking due to erosion, while our population is booming. We must build upwards,” he said.

In their separate speeches, the REDAN chairman, Dr Nwachukwu, and the emeritus chairman of REDAN, Sir Law Nkwonta, said the association had been active in Anambra for three years and was committed to ethical real estate development that supports the state’s economic growth.

"We formally request recognition and inclusion from the state government. In many other states, the government insists that developers must have a REDAN Certificate of membership before they can register or develop land.

"We want Anambra to adopt the same standard as this will help us legalize our association, control illegal developers, and achieve our mandate", they said.

They requested government's support to make REDAN more visible in Anambra, including collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) for awareness creation.

Also speaking, the official representative of the association, ESV Dr Nkiruka Aro, maintained that REDAN shares the government's concerns and has already mandated a 3-metre setback for its members.

She requested that the proposed housing bill before the State House of Assembly include a requirement for developers to obtain REDAN membership, and suggested a public-private partnership to construct vertical housing for serving civil servants on existing government estate land.

Additionally, she proposed a regulation that would require estates with 50 buildings or more to have one central borehole instead of individual ones to prevent soil instability.