Nigeria mortgage sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product (BDP) relative to other countries of the world indicates it lags behind countries like Ghana, Thailand and New Zealand in ease of registering property.

Research reports has proved that registering a property in Nigeria takes an average of 12 procedures, lasts nearly four months (except in Lagos State which has improved on this) and costs about 15 percent of the property value as against neighbouring Ghana, where it requires just five procedures, 34 days and 1.3 percent of the property value.

The Former Managing Director of Refuge Homes Saving and Loans Limited (mortgage bankers),  Olusola Olubode, gave this hint in a paper titled ‘Unlocking National Wealth through Housing Development Revolution’, adding that in New Zealand property could be registered online in two days at a cost of 0.1 percent of property value.

According to Olubode, World Bank report on Doing Business in Nigeria presented Nigeria as one of the world’s most difficult places to register property, while Thailand property requires just one step, less than a day and 1 percent of property value.

Similarly, Abudulrahman Kadiri, CEO, Oak Properties, also noted that in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE) a buyer should have perfected his land titles in less than 72 hours with considerably low pay.

Kadiri, a Dubai-based property vendor, explained that the unprecedented boom that was witnessed in that country’s property market was due to its relaxed land laws which, in 1982, gave foreigners 99 years leasehold and freehold on land, leading to the explosion in property development.

Dapo Ojo of Estate Links Limited, cited South Africa which, he said that, depending on the size and value of the property, it takes between one and two months to perfect land title documents, noting that it takes one day and zero percent cost to register a property valued at R0 – 600,000, and 3 percent R600,001 – R1,000,000.

In UK, he said, it takes 1-2 months, six procedures and 4 percent of the value of the property to register a property while it takes the same 1-2 months, six procedures and between $1,000 and $8,000 to do the same thing in USA.

Citing a data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olubode said that the impact of mortgage banking in Nigeria remains unfelt by the populace as indicated by low percentage of mortgage loan to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).