I’m not wealthy yet, not by a long shot. Editors don’t earn much, and writers are paid even less, so when a client I have great respect for invited me to a real estate investment seminar last week, I wondered why. Perhaps she has seen into my future and I’m about to come into money! After all, investing in real estate is for rich, financially free people, isn’t it? Since she was inviting me on her own account, I gladly went, eager to learn something I could use in the not-so-near...

SALE OF PROPERTY WITHOUT AUTHORITY Purported sale of land by persons not having legal title to it is by far one of the commonest and most dreaded evils associated with land acquisition. This is because a lot of people conjure different types of ‘title’ to the land that it takes due diligence and lots of prayers on the part of the purchaser not to fall into the wrong hands. It was always common for purported family agents to unlawfully sell family property without the consent of the head...

Anybody that has had dealings in the real estate sector in Nigeria, particularly in the urban areas like Lagos and its environs will know the numerous dirt and risks associated with land acquisition and development. Prominent among the hazards that bewitch the process of land acquisition and ownership in Nigeria is the menace of the ‘omo onile’ (as it is popularly called) which literally means ‘sons of the landowners’; the ‘ajagungbale’ (meaning one that ‘fights war to obtain...