5 Land Titles and Their Respective Relevance In Nigerian Real Estate Industry” —Ayorinde Ejioye.
Investing in the real estate industry is a thing, but understanding important concepts and documents guiding the market is another.
After all, part of due diligence you must do is to know and familiarise yourself with various titles a landed property can have before putting your money in it.
In this piece, you will read about five land titles in Nigeria and their relevance to the Nigerian real estate industry.
Certificate of Occupancy (C of O): Being one of the most popular titles in the scene, C of O is a government approved land title that allows landowners the freedom to use, mortgage or sell their lands outrightly.
This certificate of land ownership issued by the government holds a use period of 99 years. All C of O holders can use their lands for commercial or residential purposes during the period of certificate ownership.
Gazette: This title is usually given to lands that get excised (cut) by the government and then, given to a local community or real estate company for commercial or residential use. This title shows the exact number of acres or hectares of land excised to a local community or real estate company.
Afterwards, the excised lands will be published in the government’s official record book called ‘Gazette’. This means all lands recorded in this book will carry the Gazette title.
Governor’s Consent: This land title is peculiar to any land with an existing C of O or Gazette title. This simply means that if a land owner wants to sell his or her land that has a Certificate of Occupancy or Gazette title, he or she will only be offered the ‘Governor’s Consent’ title.
This title will give the new owner and/or subsequent buyers full authority to use the land for commercial and/or residential purposes as due.
Deeds of Assignment: This land title is a legal document that allows for land and property ownership transfer between family members. It ensures accuracy and security in ownership transfer between bloodlines and transcends beyond the familial relationship and agreement about lands or properties ownership.
Deeds of assignment must be registered with the land registry for appropriate documentation of the land ownership. A similar, but slightly different, title is the Deeds of Conveyance, which is used to transfer land or property ownership between parties that are not family members.
Freehold: As government-authorised as land ownership usually is, the freehold land title is the supreme and more lenient title around. This land title affords the owners total control over its use, sale and transfer to other persons.
In fact, the government has no expiration date over the land use like it does in the case of other land titles. Also, freehold-titled land owners can transfer their ownership across generations without legal procedures.
Extensively, there are more land titles around, but above are the most common ones in the Nigerian real estate market.
Which one of these do you understand beforehand?
Author: Ayorinde Ejioye
Ayorinde Ejioye is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Gidi Real Estate Investment Limited.
