Surveyors urged to embrace mega estate practice

Practitioners explore opportunities in urban regeneration
Amid the dominance of international firms in the sector, estate surveyors and valuers have been urged to vexplore mega practice option and partnerships.

According to the experts who gave the charge in Lagos, the international investors are potentials in the industry and have competitive advantage of expertise, but can’t be stopped hence, indigenous professionals should reposition themselves for greater benefits.

President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Sir Rowland Abonta who led the call at an interactive session on ‘Dynamics of Establishing and Running a Vibrant Mega Real Estate Practice’, reinforced the institution’s continued quest for effective practice as well as optimal contributions to national economic development.

He observed that the real estate sector is developing at tremendous pace, with activities within the industry on the rise, leveraging on key sectors of the economy such as, housing, telecoms, agriculture, power, infrastructure and others.

The growth and benefits to practitioners, he said might be a mirage, if operators failed to embrace partnerships.

Abonta who was represented by the Vice President, Emmanuel Wike, said real estate practice thrives on trust, specialisation, professionalism, quality delivery and funds accessibility, being a capital-intensive venture.

He said it is inevitable in view of todays’ reality that external support for the sector’s financing and projects development would be required. These requirements, he stated could effectively be met in partnership and mega practices otherwise; practitioners would soon be squeezed out of relevance.

“It is disheartening to note that despite the advantages in mega practice, members are neither willing to embrace, nor explore it even with a subsisting law. Young practitioners should be admonished and encouraged to embrace any of the models with incentives offered would-be partners and conditions to make it difficult for them to break it”, he said.

The Chairman, Faculty of Estate Agency and Marketing, Mr. Sam Eboigbe who convened the forum said the society is getting very sophisticated and the business of real estate is changing. He therefore said practitioners couldn’t be left in isolation; they need to upgrade and deliver effective service to investors.

“Estate surveyors are loosing so much ground to external incursion into our territory and in a bid to halt that trend; we have decided to look inward on what to do things in the right way through mega practice. Investors look for well-established mega operators because there is more effective service, specialization and one stop shop where clients get the best.”

In their contributions, a past president of NIESV, Joe Idudu, and other facilitators that include, Mr. Kolawole Diya, Dapo Akinoso, Hyacinth Oseji, and Mr. Frank Oseji stressed the importance of diligence and professional integrity in the selection of partners for effective mega practice in Nigeria.

According to them, in such alliance, parties should share the same vision and emphasize constant training, disagreement must not cause them to split and the practice must be system dependent and not self-dependent in operation.

Meanwhile, the NIESV Lagos State chapter has beckoned on practitioners to explore opportunities in urban regeneration and redevelopment as a pathway to creating a 21st century economies in the country.

The chairman of the chapter, Mr. Adedotun Bamigbola stated while speaking with The Guardian on the sidelines of the 2019 mandatory continuous professional development for members, titled ‘urban regeneration: opportunities for real estate investors and practitioners’. He called on the Lagos state government and the federal government to see the private sector as partners for redevelopment of slums in view of the growing population estimated to hit about 400 million by 2050 and the need to provide housing and other modern infrastructures for their survival.

“Government should introduce tax holidays and other measures. There is need for collaboration among professionals to mitigate the challenges private developers participating in urban renewal and housing development face. There must be economic gains to the investors before they invest their funds.”

A past president of Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON), Moses Ogunleye who chairs the session said, there will always be need for urban renewal since cities are like human beings that needs renewal, otherwise they become dilapidated and dead.

According to him, cities suppose to be engine of growth, job creations and centres for other opportunities and authorities must constantly think of how to bring in new ideas that would improve the standard of living of the people especially as relate to buildings and infrastructure.

He the potentials in urban regeneration are huge and government can’t do it all and so the private sector could participate in the area of housing, infrastructures, hospital industry and the redeveloping internal part of the cities.

In a presentation, the former Director of Estate, Lagos Urban renewal Agency, Akinade Tijani emphasised that if urban renewal is taken as land development for the purpose of social, economic and environmental enhancement, it should attract private investment because land development has always been a profitable venture.

He declared that the state government has to have a positive policy for development through urban renewal and to achieve it through public private partnership and the required institution, including expertise.