How to Verify a Real Estate Developer in Nigeria Before You Buy Off-Plan

Before you pay a kobo to any developer in Nigeria, confirm three things: that the company legally exists, that it actually holds title to the land it is selling, and that it has delivered finished projects before. Most off-plan losses in Lagos and Abuja come from skipping one of these. The good news is that all three are checkable, and the law gives you clear documents to demand.

This is how to verify a real estate developer in Nigeria properly, in the order that matters.

Step one: confirm the company is real and registered

Every legitimate developer in Nigeria must be incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). Ask for the company's RC number, then run it through the CAC public company search. You are checking that the name on the marketing matches the registered entity, that the company is active and not dormant, and that the people signing your contract are listed directors. A developer that hesitates to give you an RC number is the answer to your question.

This step costs nothing and takes minutes, yet it is the one buyers skip when a slick sales agent is pushing a launch-week discount. A registered company is not proof of competence, but an unregistered one is proof of risk.

CAC registration is the federal layer. Lagos adds a second one. Under the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority Law, every developer, agent, and property manager operating in the state must register with the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) and carry a LASRERA ID. Ask for the number and confirm it against the authority's records. A developer without one is not merely unverified, it is trading in breach of the registration law, which tells you how it treats every other rule. For projects outside Lagos, check the equivalent state authority.

Step two: understand who actually owns land in Nigeria

Here is the part foreign and diaspora buyers misread. Under the Land Use Act of 1978, all land in each state is vested in the Governor of that state, held in trust for the people. You do not buy land outright in Nigeria the way you would in the United States. What you acquire is a right of occupancy.

That right is evidenced by a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), the statutory document confirming legal right to use a parcel of land, typically for a term of 99 years. A genuine C of O is registered at the State Ministry of Lands. The single most important verification you can do is a title search at the relevant state land registry to confirm the C of O exists, covers the exact plot being sold, and is in the name of the party the developer claims.

Fake C of Os circulate widely, produced with good printers and forged government stamps, so never accept a photocopy. Run the search on a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the root of title at the state land registry. Lagos and several other states now offer online C of O verification, which lets you check the number before you ever meet the developer.

Step three: the governor's consent trap

This is where deals quietly fail years later. Section 22 of the Land Use Act makes it unlawful for a holder of a right of occupancy to transfer, mortgage, or assign that interest without the consent of the Governor first obtained. Read together with Section 21, no transfer of land is legally complete without this consent.

In practice, a developer may hold a valid C of O but sell you plots through a deed of assignment that never receives governor's consent. Your deed sits unperfected. You think you own the land; legally, the transfer is incomplete and vulnerable. When you verify a developer, ask specifically how title passes to the buyer and whether governor's consent is obtained as part of the package or left to you. The answer tells you whether you are buying a finished legal product or a future legal headache.

Step four: check for excision and gazette in Lagos

In Lagos especially, much disputed land is family or community land that was never formally released by the government. Land becomes safely transactable when it is excised, meaning the government has officially released that portion to the original community, and the release is published in an official gazette. A developer selling on excised, gazetted land can show you the gazette number and page.

Land without excision or a C of O may still be under government acquisition, which means it can be revoked, and the "owners" you bought from, often called omonile, had no power to sell clean title in the first place. Always ask which category the land falls into and demand the document that proves it.

Step five: verify delivery history, not promises

A developer can be registered, hold a C of O, and still leave you with a fenced plot of weeds five years after taking your money. The final filter is track record. Ask for completed projects you can physically visit, names of estates already handed over, and buyers you can speak to. Cross-check the company's claims against independent records rather than its own brochure. This is exactly the gap Bektu (https://bektu.com) fills, by tracking developer delivery history so buyers can see what a company has actually completed rather than what it promises.

Confirm as well that the company which delivered those earlier estates is the same CAC entity now selling to you, and not a similarly named successor set up after the last one collapsed.

If you are looking at specific Abuja developments, it is worth reading how a single project's documentation stacks up in practice, for example the Sefcon Court Abuja investor guide and the Baruch and Phareex developer verification breakdown, both of which show the kind of paper trail a serious buyer should expect.

The documents to demand before you pay

Put simply, before money changes hands, a credible Nigerian developer should be able to produce: a CAC certificate and RC number, a registered Certificate of Occupancy for the land, a survey plan stamped by the state Surveyor-General, evidence of excision and gazette where the land was community land, and a clear path to governor's consent on your deed of assignment. Engage a property lawyer to run the title search independently. The fee is trivial against the price of buying land the seller never had the right to sell.

Two further searches sit outside the title file. The professional search confirms the project's architect is registered with the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) and its engineers with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN); unlicensed design and engineering is both illegal and a structural risk in a market where building collapses are not rare. The technical search confirms the building permit and planning approval from the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) or the relevant state planning body. A development without an approved permit can be sealed or demolished regardless of what you paid.

When you do proceed, tie deposits and milestone payments to verified construction stages, and make the contract name the C of O number and survey details of your specific plot.

The bottom line

Verifying a developer in Nigeria is not about trust, it is about documents. The Land Use Act gives every buyer the right to demand proof, and every legitimate developer can produce it. Confirm the company at CAC, confirm the title at the land registry, confirm governor's consent is handled, confirm excision where relevant, and confirm the company has delivered before. Skip none of these, and the off-plan discount is worth taking. Skip one, and you are gambling.