Professionalising estate agency practice in Nigeria (1)

Professionalising is derived from the term profession/professional. A professional connotes a person with a distinct competence for a specified function or discipline. Such a person would have been trained or has acquired the necessary training in that discipline to become a professional in that field. A professional exists within the context of a profession; a distinct discipline or career path with its own training, qualification and membership requirements and standards. It is in the bid to establish such standards that professional bodies exist to ensure that persons within its fold have the requisite training/qualification and also abide by its rules and ethical standards. A professional in any field is a highly regarded person and is deemed to have a certain level of competence expected of a person in that profession.

Estate agency is essentially a land-based profession that deals with the business of buying, selling or leasing of interests in real estate, which may be land or buildings or interests therein. Practitioners of this trade are generally addressed as estate agents in our environment.

Considering the importance of housing in man’s hierarchy of needs and the huge deficit that exists in the housing sector in Nigeria, estate agents generally play a very important role in the socio-economic life of the country. Generally, an agent is a person who possesses the authority to act on behalf of another person with a view to establishing contractual relationship between his principal and a third party. The person who employs the agent is usually called the principal. Several variants of agent/agency exist but that is outside the scope of this paper.

Present state of estate agency practice

The practice of estate agency in Nigeria at present remains largely unorganized, unregulated and unprofessional. Apart from the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers that has set standards for its practice by its members, i.e., estate surveyors and valuers, the large majority of those who practice estate agency do so without the basic training in that field, without any certification or qualification, without any regulation and largely in an unprofessional manner. The practice is generally open to “all comers” and entry and exit are at the sole discretion of the person.

Due to lack of a central professional/regulatory body that will set minimum standards for entry, set standards for its practice, as well as ensure adherence to a code of ethics, most estate agents are generally on their own and quackery with its attendant consequences is very prevalent if not the order of the day. A multiplicity of local estate agents associations exists but these are essentially local bodies without either the right structure, leadership or plans to advance the practice of estate agency beyond the parochial interest of the founders or originators.

Effects of the present state

The effects of this present state are indeed too numerous to count. The major effects are that due to lack of regulation and requisite competence on the part of the practitioners, the consuming public has been on the receiving end of estate agents in terms of very poor services, fraudulent transactions and losses of income through the activities of dubious practitioners.

As a result of this, the public perception of the estate agent is very, very poor. Estate agents are generally looked upon as persons who engage in sharp practices and whom you have to deal with with “all eyes” open. In view of this, the practitioners are not respected in the society.

The very low level of respect for the practitioners has led to a situation where both vendors and landlords alike do not see the need to remunerate them appropriately, while the lack of standardization and regulation has led to both the landlords and the vendors turning themselves into agents. In most cases, multiple agents are appointed and owing to lack of standardized practice procedures it usually turns into a cutthroat competition amongst them.

The level of abortive work done by the average agent is phenomenally high due to the non-standardized practice procedure. The police, EFCC and other law enforcement agencies are after the agents in the belief that a lot of money laundering is done through the acquisition of properties with illicitly acquired wealth. The summary of the above scenario is that the average agent is worse off even as the consuming public is being fed with poor services in the sector.

The practice in the developed world

On the contrary, estate agency practice in the developed parts of the world is a very respectable profession. It fits into the mould of a profession in that its practitioners are trained in that field, have minimum qualification as prescribed and are certified to practice by the recognized professional body of agents.

Practitioners abide by the code of ethics and practice of the professional body and sanctions are meted out to those who breach the rule. A process of continuous training and development for practitioners is mandatory to ensure that they are up-to-date with current practice procedures. The consuming public is happy with their services and the estate agent is a respected professional. The practice is well-regulated and only qualified persons can practice. In the end, the average agent is a respected member of the community, is usually well-to-do (rich) and can hold his head high amongst fellow professionals.

EMEKA D. ELEH