It is the question almost every serious buyer in Lagos asks eventually. Do I buy the cheaper unit that is still on paper, or the finished one I can walk through today? One promises a lower price and a payment plan. The other promises certainty. Both can be the right answer, and both have ruined…
A woman in Houston sent ₦95 million to a seller in Ajah last year. She had a signed Deed of Assignment, a survey plan, and photographs of the fence. What she did not have was one piece of paper from the Office of the Surveyor-General telling her the land sat inside a committed government acquisition.…
Almost every buyer in Lagos budgets only for the property’s price. Then the demand notice arrives from Alausa, and the number is millions higher than expected. The taxes and fees on property sale in Nigeria are not hidden. They are published, they are percentages, and they are entirely predictable if you know which four to…
Ask around Lagos whether a foreigner can buy property in Nigeria and you will hear the same answer every time: yes, on a 99-year lease. It is repeated by agents, by lawyers, and by half the property blogs on the internet. It is wrong. When people ask, can a foreigner buy property in Nigeria on…
Most realtors in Lagos treat the business account question as a matter of good organisation—something to sort out later, once the deals get bigger. It is not. Under Lagos law, a separate client account for realtors in Lagos is a condition of registration. Not a recommendation. A requirement with a section number attached, and without…
A Nigerian doctor working in Manchester wired ₦85 million to buy a five-bedroom house in Lekki last year. His agent produced a Deed of Assignment. The seller signed it. The keys changed hands. He flew back to England thinking the property was his. Eighteen months later, he came home to sell. Serious buyers walked away.…
Somebody paid N18 million for a plot of land in Ajah last year. He received a registered survey plan. He showed it to his family. They congratulated him. He started planning what to build. Six months later, a different person showed up on the same plot with a Certificate of Occupancy issued by the Lagos…
Nigerians living outside the country sent home $20.93 billion in 2024. The Central Bank of Nigeria confirmed this was an 8.9% increase from the year before, making it four times the value of all foreign direct investment into Nigeria for the same period. A large share of that money goes toward supporting the family and…
Every year, Nigerians hand over their life savings for land that does not belong to the person selling it. Some buy with forged Certificates of Occupancy. Some pay for properties the government acquired years before the transaction took place. A 2025 industry analysis published by Land.ng estimates that real estate fraud costs Nigeria over $4…
Lagos sits on the Atlantic. This is a fact that most people forget while stuck in traffic on the Lekki-Epe Expressway. But the coastline is there, and a small but growing number of beach resorts make the most of it. Whether you need a proper weekend reset, you are scouting the Lekki corridor for property,…