A recent report has revealed that Lagos and Ogun states collectively record over half a million land scam incidents every year, exposing deep structural flaws in land administration across the region.
The disclosure comes from the third volume of the State of Lagos Housing Market Report, published by the Roland Igbinoba Real Foundation for Housing and Urban Development. The report underscores the widespread problem of fraudulent land transactions and poor documentation, noting that land title disputes affect 95% of real estate transactions nationwide.
The fallout from these issues is significant. Experts estimate that over $150 billion worth of real estate in Nigeria remains economically dormant, or “dead capital,” due to unresolved ownership conflicts and a lack of valid titles.
To address these issues, various stakeholders, including government agencies and private firms, have ramped up efforts to improve transparency and trust in the sector. Among these is Sytemap, a fast-rising property technology firm using blockchain to digitise and secure land records.
Sytemap’s solution enables the use of tamper-proof smart contracts and a map-based interface with satellite imagery, allowing users to verify land ownership and boundaries with greater accuracy. The firm has tokenised nearly 100,000 square metres of land, and over 100 real estate companies, including AlphaMead and Leadway Properties, now integrate its services into their platforms to improve buyer confidence and speed up transactions.
In a related move, the Lagos State Government announced in late 2024 that it would begin tokenising real estate assets, effectively converting property ownership into digital tokens stored on a blockchain. Each token represents a share in a property, mirroring stock ownership models in capital markets. The government aims to create an immutable record of transactions, thereby reducing fraud and increasing investor trust.
While the broader adoption of blockchain in real estate is still in its early stages due to regulatory and infrastructural hurdles, simpler PropTech solutions are gaining traction. Technologies focused on property listing, market analytics, and digital payment systems are being rapidly adopted.
Startups like Estate Intel, Haap Living, and PropertyPro.ng are using data analytics to track real estate trends and investment opportunities. Their platforms offer insights into pricing patterns, rental markets, and construction pipelines across African cities, helping developers and investors make more informed decisions.
Meanwhile, property listing platforms like Nigeria Property Centre, BuyLetLive, Righthome, and Spleet have transformed the way buyers and renters engage with the market. These platforms allow users to filter properties by location, amenities, and payment terms, streamlining the property search process and reducing the dependence on physical site visits or word-of-mouth referrals.
The report concludes that the rapid digitisation of the real estate sector in Lagos is ushering in a new era, one marked by improved market efficiency, better access to property information, and innovative solutions to long-standing challenges such as land fraud and poor documentation.
The first two editions of the State of Lagos Housing Market Report were released in 2009 and 2016, with the 2025 edition providing the most in-depth analysis yet of the intersection between real estate and technology in Nigeria.
