Cost Of Land Survey Plan In Lagos Nigeria
- Posted by Karo Itoje in Blog Updates, Real Estate News
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The cost of land survey plan in Lagos is regulated by the Lagos chapter of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS). And recently the cost of surveying a plot of land in Lagos Nigeria was increased by about 300 percent and the new fees took effect April 1st, 2017.
The new fees cut across different zones of Lagos.
For instance Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry Ojo and Ajeromi Ifelodun local government that was N120, 000 is now N350, 000.
While Lagos Island, Eti- Osa, Ikeja and Apapa, which was N300, 000 is now N1million. Somolu, Alimoso, Mushin, Agege, Ibeju Lekki, Kosofe, Lagos Mainland, Amuwo Odofin Local Government, formerly pegged at N180, 000 has been hiked to N650, 000.
How the New Prices of Land Survey affects Real Estate as a whole
As a real estate consultant I can tell you for sure that the new cost of survey isn’t good for business. Nobody is happy about the price increase not the real estate companies and especially not those buying lands. But hopefully this is just a temporary thing and the price will be adjusted soon. I say so because some housing professionals don’t support the change and the association of property developers are even fighting it in court.
Speaking to The Guardian some housing professionals criticised the move, saying it would also make prospective homeowners to cut corners and increase the cost of procurement of land documents.
President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Dr. Bolarinde Patunola-Ajayi said that the development will make few people to invest in property as the new rate is higher than the cost of buying land in some locations. NIESV president, who dismissed call for the institution to increase its scale of fees, noted that such development would have dire consequence for the housing industry.
For the Second vice president, Nigerian Institute of Building, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, said that the institution is justified in increasing its fees as inflation has affected members of the built environment professionals. He disclosed that such fees will be pass on to the would-be subscribers of houses or landed property.
But, property developers under the aegis of Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) are not allowing the matter to lie low. REDAN has engaged the services of a law firm and threatened to go court.
In a letter to the surveyors, counsel to REDAN, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, asked the surveyors to suspend the implementation of the proposed increment, in order to give room for further interaction and dialogue, with all stakeholders in the building industry.
REDAN also made a case that the increment will have a ripple effect on the cost of land as other professionals involved in the real estate business such as lawyers, architects, engineers, and town planners will also increase the cost of their own services, which will all be borne by the end users. “It will also rubbish the efforts of government towards achieving affordable housing.”
REDAN therefore appealed to the surveyors to convey a meeting of all stakeholders in order to discuss and agree on the best modality for any review of professional fees in land related matters.
Adegboruwa however warned that REDAN will challenge the proposed increment in court, should the surveyors insist on implementing the policy as stated.The letter read:
“Our clients consider it improper to increase the cost of survey plans at this time of economic recession, especially considering the ripple effect that such a step may have on other stakeholders within the built industry, such as architects, engineers and lawyers, etc, who are also members of their association.
The planned increment will also impact negatively on the policy of affordable housing being promoted by the present administration at all levels. Our clients have also consulted the various statutes regulating this matter and they are yet to be convinced of the legal basis of this increment at this time.
Consequently, we have our clients’ instructions to request you to kindly prevail on your organisation and its members to suspend the implementation of this policy and to allow for further interactions, dialogue and discussions, between all the relevant stakeholders in the real estate business.
In compliance with statutory requirement to explore alternative dispute resolution mechanism, kindly indicate to us in writing within five clear days of your receipt of this letter, of your kind disposition towards the meeting suggested herein, failing which we have our clients’ further instructions to take out a writ of summons in court to determine the legality of such increment, to take out an order of injunction to restrain the implementation thereof and to determine other ancillary legal issues,” they added.
Time will tell if REDAN’s actions against this yields any result. In the mean time some real estate companies have updated their survey prices to reflect the new prices. As for the real estate companies we work with, some are now collecting N500k per plot for the estates in Ibeju Lekki but give a discount on survey for multiple plots while others have temporarily put survey fees on hold. For our estates in Eti-Osa such as Orangeville, Westwood Park Phase 2 and Arium Estate, the cost of survey is now N1million per plot but price is discounted for multiple plots.
Read: Is It True That Surveys Are Done Per Plot?
When you’re buying a piece of land from a real estate company and you hear the high survey fee do not blame them because none of that money goes to their pocket. A large percentage of the money goes to the government and the rest is shared among the surveyors.
