Checking the Growing Unethical Practices in the Real Estate

ESV Michael Asikpata

All over the World, what gives credibility and continuity to business transactions are the ethical practices carried out in the course of the business transactions. The real estate business in particular is a business driven by ethical practices in its entirety. And in the same vein, the industry is highly prone to unethical practices. The infiltration of non-professionals otherwise known as quacks in the Nigerian real estate space has given room for so many unethical practices in the industry and this is taking a negative toll in the entire ecosystem.

All the illegal actions, activities, sharp practices, abuse of laid down rules and regulations are considered to be unethical in real estate transactions.  Working against the fair interest of the profession, clients, and ethical standards is a growing unethical practice in the Nigerian real estate industry. Ethical behaviors connote the business activity of complying with rules and values in a given field of endeavours.  Noncompliance to these rules and values are considered unethical.

 The lucrative nature of the industry has given room to so many non-professionals to parade themselves as professionals before prospects and clients, and consequently causing unethical problems in the industry and its stakeholders.

In checking these unethical moves by quacks, and in rare cases by professionals in the industry, the different professional bodies operating in the Nigerian built environment have a pivotal role to play.  At their institutional levels, their members should be adequately sectioned when the code of professional practice is abused in a bid to make money at the detriment of the professional and industry as a whole.

Advocacy programmes by the government and all professional bodies in the built environment should be encouraged. The central message of the advocacy campaigns would be the sensitizing of the general public on the dangers of patronizing quacks in the Nigerian real estate sector. With good advocacy programmes, the patronage of quacks by the public will be reduced to the barest minimum.  Practicing real estate without a license is an economic crime that should be put to an end by all stakeholders’ in the industry. Certifications by various professional bodies are what make a professional in this all important sector of the economy.

A government and private sector joint venture task force should be launched to arrest and prosecute non-professionals who are distorting the sanity of the industry with their unethical and unprofessional activities that do not augur well for the market, profession, industry, and the country as a whole.

Another angle to check the growing unethical practices in the industry is to reduce the number of quacks. Professional bodies in the industry should develop programmes, professionally train the quacks, and welcome them into their folds.  

Continuous education and training on the subject of ethics should be made compulsory for all real estate professionals. With this move, the latest ethical trends will be inculcated into real estate practice for the common good of the professionals, professionals, institutions, and of course the government.

ESV Michael Asikpata, is a registered Estate Surveyor and Valuer. He is the Head of Practice at Mike Asikpata Consulting, a leading Nigerian Firm of Estate Surveyors & Valuers.