The chairman, Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Abuja Chapter, Sir Peter Okolo has commended the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed over the initiation of the Accelerated Area Councils Title Re-issuance Scheme (AACTRIS).
Okolo, who stated this in an address at the official flag off of AACTRIS in Abuja, said the association was excited over the scheme as it was very crucial to their business.
AACTRIS is an initiative of the FCT administration to process the backlog of area council titles, through Public-Private Partnership.
He noted that statutory land titles were bankable instruments accepted by banks and other lending institutions as collateral for loan facilities and added that the value of any landed property increases significantly as soon as a valid certificate of occupancy is issued to the owner.
Okolo said: “Statutory land titles are also essential legal instruments of land transactions and lend a measure of security and reassurance to sales –purchase agreements in the real estate sector.
“When one considers the sheer number of individual property owners in the various mass housing estates of the FCT, who would be economically empowered as a result of possessing a C-of-O for their properties and also the estate developers who will see a significant appreciation in the sales value of their houses, one cannot but applaud this bold, but calculated move by the FCT administration.”
Speaking further, he noted that the project had the potential of accelerating the rate of development in the area councils and creating countless number of jobs, because:
“Wherever you want to build houses, you must first open a road and when you open a road, more settlers will be attracted and the more settlers that come, the greater vthe rate of development, couple with this bankable titles that can be used as collateral for loans and you have the perfect mix of ingredients for both economic and infrastructural transformation, the likes of which the FCT may not have witnessed since its creation.”
He advised members of the association to take advantage of the opportunity both for what they stand to gain economically and for the development of the FCT.