Simplify housing laws, developer advises govt
The Managing Director, Grenadines Homes, Mrs. Noimot Olatunji, has said with the housing deficit still a major issue in the country, government at all levels should urgently put measures in place to simplify the approval processes of land titles.
She stated that this would fast-track timely and cost-efficient housing delivery in the country.
Olatunji said, “‘The real estate sector needs a one-stop shop in order to remove ambiguity, overlapping or contradicting laws and functions, and to take into consideration the pressing development needs of a fast urbanising nation.
“It is imperative, therefore, that the federal and state building laws are consolidated in a simpler format and streamlined according to the current needs and trends.”
She also canvassed the resolution of the perennial conflicts among inter-governmental agencies over which of them had the supreme authority on the approval of procedures and perfection of titles.
The Grenadines Homes’ boss added that the multiplicity of regulatory bodies was a major hindrance to business and that the situation was creating room for corruption.
Olatunji said undue bureaucracy usually encountered in the course of seeking approval was the bane of the country’s real estate sector.
According to her, the condition under which players and investors in the real estate sector operate currently is unfriendly, cumbersome, anti-business and generally very ambiguous.
She said, “Rules and processes are in place for the protection of the real estate sector, but what we actually want is for somebody to give us timely updates on the approval process. We want to know if the title applications are being processed or if there are issues.
“We want to know if the designs meet the specifications; we want to know if everything is okay. What we don’t want is to go half way down the development journey only to find out that there are issues.”
She also noted that the non-delegation of authority and the consequent needless long wait because of the absence of some officials in charge of approvals was a setback in the running of government business.
Olatunji added, “They will tell you the governor has sent the engineer somewhere; so, this week, nothing is happening and these are the things that really do frustrate us. When we are being stalled by government processes, it becomes integrity issue for us because we keep giving clients one excuse or the other, because of the engineer who has personalised the office.
“The solution to dealing with this thorny issue is to make the processes very clear from the outset. What the sector really needs are concise guidelines on what we have to do, how much it will cost and how long it will take. If we have that, then we are on a good starting point and this will prevent unscrupulous people from defrauding the system.”
She said parameters for measurement, which should allow for effective planning, should be set up, adding that the industry would be better served when those responsible for processing applications were held up to a high standard where they could state periodically how many applications they received, how many had been processed and how many were pending; and the time to process them.
“That is when the sector can be taken seriously,” she concluded.
PUNCH.
