By Akanimo Sampson
Foremost real estate advocacy group, Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN), has started campaigning for customer relations to be the watchword of this sector of Nigeria’s economy currently being soiled by some damaging allegations of sharp practices.
Executive Director of HDAN, Festus Adebayo, told this news portal in an exclusive interview in Abuja on Saturday that the alarming complaints of some real estate developers ‘’disappearing’’ from sites after collecting money from subscribers ‘’is adversely affecting the industry’’.
Piqued, Adebayo who is also the Convener of Abuja International Housing Show (AIHS), the biggest annual housing and construction event in Africa, is calling for the regulation of the real estate sector in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
According to HDAN, ‘’the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) is in a better position to regulate the industry than wait for the government to do so. There has been so much complaints in recent times about payments made to real estate developers who disappear from sites, and refusing to pick calls thereafter
‘’As a concern interest group, HDAN is calling on real estate developers to scale-up their relations with subscribers no matter how little the subscribers have invested. We can no longer fold our hands and watch some bad eggs ruin the industry.
‘’There are reports portraying the sector and its players as if they are not credible. There is therefore, an urgent need for a change of attitude to rescue the sector from being dragged further into the mud. Now is the time for professional bodies in the industry to come together and proffer solutions on how to protect the integrity and credibility of the sector.’’
The implication of what this leading advocacy group is saying is that real estate advertising ethics is a big problem in Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, and some other cities is a big problem because of non-existence regulation regime. In the US for instance, it is not so.
It seems the sector cannot be virtuous if REDAN fails to be disciplining members, and getting non-registered members to face the wrath of the law for publishing false, misleading, or deceitful ads.
In the US, the Standard of Practice requires “authority” to advertise a listing coming from the listing agent who has a written listing agreement with the seller.
Does REDAN even have a working Code of Ethics? Every industry has ethics and standards of practice. Such should apply when dealing with all parties in real estate transactions.
What HDAN is pressing for in the main is, its high time real estate developers began to follow the rules to stay out of trouble!
