Real estate is a high-stakes game. It is an investment decision that determines the trajectory of your generational wealth, and you cannot afford to take it lightly. You must put your best foot forward by asking the right questions to the right people.
In the Nigerian market, a genuine answer depends entirely on who is giving it. If you ask the wrong person the right question, they will lie to your face to protect their interest. In a single community transaction, you might have five agents and three families all “colluding” behind closed doors. They will tell you a title is clean just to take your money and swim.
To survive real estate investment in Nigeria, you must move beyond “he said, she said” and understand the technical loopholes that scammers exploit.
1. The Capacity Gap: Owning vs. Selling vs. Transferring
This is the most common trap. To have a valid transaction, the seller must possess three distinct legal capacities. If one is missing, the deal is dead.
Capacity to Own: Does the person actually have a right to the land? In Customary Ownership (lands passed down through generations without paper titles), many family members have a right to “own” but zero right to “sell.”
Capacity to Sell: Does the individual have the legal authority to dispose of the asset? For example, a “Family Head” might be the figurehead, but without the consent of the principal members of the family, he cannot sell.
Capacity to Transfer: This is the “Minor Loophole.” A father may leave land to his 10-year-old son. That child has the capacity to own, and perhaps the intent to sell, but as a minor, he lacks the legal capacity to transfer title.
2. Jurisdictional Differences: The Title Trap
Nigeria is governed by the Land Use Act of 1978, but every state (jurisdiction) has its own sub-local peculiarities. What works in Lagos will fail in Port Harcourt or Abuja.
Lagos: You deal with “Governor’s Consent” and “Gazettes.”
Abuja: You deal with the “Right of Occupancy (R of O)” from the FCT Minister.
Port Harcourt: The structure and terms of a C of O differ significantly.
If you don’t understand the Statutory vs. Legal distinction, you are at risk.
Statutory Titles: Deeds of Assignment or Conveyance that are signed but not registered with the government. They are valid in court but invisible to the Ministry of Lands.
Legal Titles: Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) or Gazettes. These are registered at the government level and offer the highest security.
Strategy Insight: The “Recital” Audit
Never buy a property without a deep dive into the Recital. The Recital is the “biography” of the land found within the Deed. It traces the root title from the very first owner to the current seller. If the history (the root) is broken or unprovable, your title is worthless in a court of law.
3. The Lease Trap: The “Senior Brother” to Rent
This is the most sophisticated scam currently hitting the market. Legally, any occupancy agreement over 3 years is a Lease. * The Scam: A developer leases 100 plots from a community for 50 years. Instead of sub-leasing to you for the remaining tenure, they use a “Deed of Conveyance” to make you think you are buying permanent ownership.
The Reversal: After 50 years, the Principle of Reversal of Ownership kicks in. The land—and the house you built on it—reverts to the original community owners. You suddenly become a tenant in your own home, forced to buy the land a second time at current market rates.
How to Block the Loopholes
Closing a real estate deal without a legal practitioner or an expert advisor is financial suicide. You need someone who can spot irregularities in a document that looks “packaged” and perfect to the untrained eye. At Win Realty, we conduct rigorous due diligence—charting the land at the Ministry to ensure it is “free” from government acquisition and verifying the root title of every community project.
Stop Playing Small. Start Building Wealth.
I am Eze Maximus Chukwujindu. I help savvy investors scale to 50–100x returns with proven real estate strategies and coach Realtors to smash the ₦1B+ annual sales ceiling.
The next move is yours. Let’s talk: Click here to enter my WhatsApp Inbox: wa.me/+2348129359176 or join my WhatsApp channel here: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaM0svgCnA7lLd4P130x
