Buying a property in Lagos is one of the main goals of everyone living in Lagos, the satisfaction is unbeatable. The city of Lagos is ever increasing as thousands of people move in every year. A large number looking for affordable houses to Live in. Real estate is one of the top business sectors in Lagos that is full of amazing benefits. Buying land is a cheaper and faster form of investing in real estate than buying a house, although this is not to say that land in some areas are not much more expensive than houses.

Buying property is a huge investment, probably the most significant in one’s lifetime. It’s not something you should do without preparation.

The process of buying land in Lagos is only safe when you know the right steps to follow.

Sellerrand Realty Ltd has drawn up 6 steps you need to take when buying land in Lagos for prospective investors and speculators. These steps must be strictly followed to prevent losing your property

1) Know your “WHY”

2) Search with a budget and location in mind

3) Do your due diligence check

4) Be aware of all the obligations that comes with ownership

Make a purchase and keep record


KNOW YOUR “WHY”

People purchase Land for different reasons, here are some:

For speculative reasons: They buy and keep, and hope that the area booms with fast development. The period is normally long term, give or take 5-10 years. Some areas are earmarked for this particular class, example is Ibeju-lekki, it is popularly known as the “New Lagos”, because the development of Lagos State is moving towards the axis, projects like the Dangote Refineries, Lekki Free trade Zone, Lekki deep sea port, the proposed New international Airport, etc. are already under construction or in plans. People that buy land in surrounding areas are speculators with a good Vision.
For immediate use: Some people are tired of paying rent or need another source of income. They know they can afford to build their own house, hotel, shopping mall, school, etc. So they go on to buy land to build on it immediately. The prices of these lands are going to be on the high side, since they most likely are closer to development.
For Farming: This is a different ball game, it is purely for investment purpose, and these type of lands come at a very cheap price, but are mostly far away from development.. There are areas already approved for agriculture by the government, so you should buy land for agricultural use only in the approved locations.
So, which category do you fall under. You should know that you can fall under all of the 3 categories, depending on your need and how deep your pocket is.


DO A SEARCH FOR THE LAND IN YOUR PREFERRED LOCATION WITH A BUDGET IN MIND

You can search for land on major property pages like Tolet.com and Nigeria property centre . You will see a large variety of estate agents with different properties for sale, you will only need to be careful by following step 3 before making payment for any land.

Sellerrand Realty Ltd has put together a limited number of genuine properties, both Land and Houses for sale and rent. These properties have been well vetted by our professional team, and we can guarantee you 100% that nothing will go wrong, we even help you through the purchase process.


“Don’t go to the market with all your money, have a budget in mind before you leave your house, so you don’t end up buying the unnecessary”….. so the saying goes.

Even though nothing is unnecessary with real estate, one should have a budget in mind and also a preferred location. This will help streamline your search and reduce the stress involved.

It’s quite possible sometimes that you might need to go over your budget to purchase Land of your choice, please don’t fret, you’re investing for your future and that of your loved ones, you can only reap better returns on your investment within a short period.

Many people only plan for the purchase fee. Once you’ve made the purchase, you will need to start processing the true ownership of the property, which means trying to perfect the title of the property to your name. I Your budget should include Legal fees, Agency Fees, Survey Plan, Cost of signing the documents, Cost of putting up a fence to secure your land immediately you purchase it, Cost of perfecting your documents with the Government at the Land Registry such as a C of O, Governors Con

DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE CHECK ON THE LAND.
Now you have seen a few properties of your choice, and it’s time to make that final decision to buy…

wait!!!!!! Not so fast… you don’t want to lose your money, right? Then you need to do your due diligence check on the said property. Here are a few things to check for:

The location of the land, and it’s coordinates
A survey plan of the said property. This is very important, there are a lot of information of the land that can be found on the survey, like the name of the owners of the land, the coordinates, size, dimension, shape, the date it was registered and also major highlights in the area like the distance to the main road.
Please note that you should only accept a registered survey, signed and stamped by the surveyor general’s office.

The Excision file number / Gazette Volume number: For land that is said to have excision already or under processing or a Gazette, The excision file number or Gazette Volume number should be provided for you to use to check at the Land Bureau at Alausa, Ikeja.
The C of O should be sighted and the C of O file number should be provided for check as well.
When you get to the Land bureau at Alausa, Ikeja, you’ll be told the status of the land.

Once you find out that the land is genuine, then you can go back to the owners for further discussion.

Should in case they say that the land is not what the owners say it is. Please do not consider buying.

Ask if there are any encumbrances on the land
BE AWARE OF THE EXTRA CHARGES. ASK QUESTIONS

Please do not feel shy to ask the developer questions about the property.

Ask these things:

What other fees are there to be paid for the land? You’ll hear things like, survey, deed of assignment, developmental fees. These fees are most times mandatory to pay before you can get allocated to your plots, but you might not necessarily have to pay it immediately, you can pay over a couple of years.
What documents am I getting when I buy? Usually you get the deed of assignment, contract of sale and survey. But please ask.
What is the project timeline for building the estate infrastructure amongst other things?


MAKE PAYMENT AND KEEP RECORD

Once you’ve known these basic things and you’re convinced, then you can move on to make the purchase and keep record.

Please do not pay cash to anyone, make sure your transaction is traceable by paying through bank transfer or cheque

This is to protect your interest should in case any issue arises.

on your budget, do a full research on your area of interest. The reasons you must do the search is because you must verify the owner, how he got the land previously, why he wants to sell, what is prompting him to sell whether there is any dispute or litigation that he wants to shift the burden to you or he has bought a very bad land and wants to dispose it quickly before the problem manifests into something bigger or he has dubious and unreliable documents that do not confer title or ownership to him, so he is looking for the nearest fool or unsuspecting buyer to pass that problem to. Also you will have to investigate the land to know whether it’s genuinely a good land, a land that isn’t under government acquisition or not, a land that is not subject to any communal or legal dispute, a land that doesn’t run afoul of government regulations etc. A proper research about the land will save you from regrets.

USE A TRUSTED REALTOR FOR YOUR PROPERTY ENDEAVORS

You might be the busy type who doesn’t have much time to follow all of these steps thoroughly, and of course, you don’t want anything to go wrong, so you might need capable hands to help you in the process.

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