The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers president, Dr. Bolarinde Patunola-Ajayi
Worried by limited understanding of marketing as tool for estate agency practice, operators have been advised to revolutionise the concept in order to tap into emerging opportunities in the built sector.
Overtime, agency practice as a professional operation deeply rooted in marketing has been misunderstood by majority of operators, hence the need for change.
But a former President of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Bode Adediji said, regardless of how ubiquitous and unappreciated the term marketing may appear, it is the most potent factor and engine that drives any country, business or any endeavours, which either thrives or decline.
Delivering a paper themed; “Identifying and taking opportunities in real estate sector: Essentially in Estate Agency Practice”, organised by the Faculty of Estate Agency and Marketing; a Business Division of NIESV, Adediji stressed that countries and organisations like Nigeria, Rwanda, Apple, Toyota, General Electric, Dangote, Coca-cola among others prosper through the concept.
“In all sincerity, what percentage of our time, and our resources do we as Estate Surveyor and Valuers devote to the concept, practice and pursuit of Marketing?
“ Do we in fact, even attempt to seriously market ourselves or our companies or our products effectively to the general public?
“Estate Agency has become the most contested, threatened or endangered section of our professional practice, because it is now taken over and dominated by quacks, lawyers, retirees, unemployed and unemployable persons and youths, some opportunistic foreigners, politicians, and corporate bodies in pursuit of pseudo-diversification”, he added.
Adediji, decried that the sector is now characterised by the phenomenon of massive market disruption, landlord-tenant crisis, abandoned projects, legislative aberrations, emergency sale and capital flight.
According to him, because the property boom had been largely fuelled by corruption money where there was no correlation between the utility or the investment worth of a property compared to the price being paid to acquire it, the sector has been troubled and bastardised.
Despite the gloom afflicting the real estate industry, he pointed out that there is a glimmer of hopes and opportunities, which can be tapped into by the discerning, innovative and assiduous practitioners.
He noted that Nigeria’s self-imposed economic recession seems to be abating but the property sector is yet to crawl out of the quagmire not until 2020 depending on the outcome of the national election in 2019.
Earlier, the Chairman of Estate Agency and Marketing division of NIESV, Mr. Sam Eboigbe said; ”We need to empower our selves every month especially in terms of knowledge acquisition and that is why we invite outstanding players in the industry to come and share experiences, their knowledge on areas which we need to develop competence and sharpen our skills.
“The essence is to increase our knowledge based and ensure that we sanitize our profession in line with best international standards, discover opportunities available and other areas we need to diversify into; like Agriculture among others”, he added.
