PH Residents Flay Property Agents Over Extortion

Some residents of Port Harcourt and its environs have raised alarm over the rate of exploitation and extortion of house seekers in the city by property brokers otherwise known as house agents.

They alleged that these agents had taken advantage of high demand of housing accommodation to extort those seeking for homes, especially in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor areas, describing such as “heartless extortion”.

In a chat with The Tide, a resident of Diobu in Port Harcourt, Mr Jude Afonye, expressed disappointment over the ugly trend.

He said that the property agents had organised themselves into a cartel, where information about housing accommodation was being shared among them, and often shortchange unsuspecting property seekers who approach them.

According to Mr Afonye who said that he had been a victim of this, alleged that these agents have come to a level where they have understanding with landlords, pointing out that every land lord now would not want to deal with house seekers directly, but would pass through the agents.

Afonye maintained that every house seeker is made to pay a registration fee of between N5,000 and N10,000 first before attention is given, even when the fellow is seeking for just one room “you can imagine a situation where you register with one agent, but when the purpose for which you registered is requested, the agent will take you to another agent, who also will take you to another agent. At the end of the day, you will end up meeting about four different agents for one particular accommodation”, he said.

He further stated that when the accommodation was finally secured, the home seeker would be made to pay between 10 – 20 per cent of the rent sum to the agent .

On his part, Samuel Imejie explained that the exploitation of home seekers in Port Harcourt by agents had come to a point where the agents were interested in the money they collect for registration, without actually getting one for their clients.

The chairman, Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Rivers State branch, Mr Emma Wike in a press statement recently, has said that the  institution was putting things together to get the agents organised.

Corlins Walter