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Experts in the real estate industry have urged the Federal Government to do more to secure families from the menace of land speculators.
These experts, fielding questions from PropertyMart warned that land speculators are capable of pitching two towns against each other in a manner that could lead to communal wars.
One of them, Mr Onyebuchi Onunaka, an estate agent, said that tracing communal wars in the past, one can link the cause to activities of land grabbers and speculators who will always align with the other town or community in order to be compensated afterwards.
“Government should settle land disputes between communities so that speculators will not latch on to the brewing dispute to cause breach of law and order in the community. Allowing disputes to linger is capable of introducing small weapons into the communities which could not be managed after the war has been settled,”he said.
Another respondent, Mrs. Turayo Oladeinde, a property developer, said that government is good at allowing problems that could be nipped at the bud to mature so that both life and property would be lost. “It is only when life is lost that public attention will be drawn and the authorities will have avenues to embezzle money,”she lamented.
Meanwhile, recently, the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers ( NIESV) alleged that hightened insecurity in Nigeria is scaring both foreign and local investors away from investing in the country.
It said that most investors are practically evaluating the level of the country’s economic stability before they make financial commitment.
NIESV President, Rowland Abonta, stated at the valedictory meeting of the council ahead of the 50th anniversary of the institution.
Abonta insisted that inadequate housing facilities was responsible for poor health condition of Nigerians and also the high level of crimes, especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He said: “The heightening insecurity in the land which is likely scaring every possible investors that are supposed to be made in the sector, foreign partners and others are now waiting.
They want to see how stable this economy will be before coming to invest.
“Real estate industry crisis in Nigeria is so numerous for us to start counting but the greatest in the housing crises. The growing number of people that live under the bridge and walk around the streets everyday and have nowhere to retire to after the day’s activities, particularly in a major city like Abuja is challenging.
“It is a crisis because these are same people that commit most of the crimes we see in Abuja. You cannot drive late in the night and have a reason to break without being molested or robbed.
A nation that does not care for the way his people live is particularly going to face many more crisis which may extend to health, when people are not living a decent environment. If coronavirus gets to Nigeria, the value will be high because of the way we live. Housing provision is the major factor.”
He added that the real estate industry has a hedge over inflation, though they are still affected by the economic situation because they deal with Nigerians and its products are capital intensive projects.
