Blog — Real Estate Insights
What Questions Should I Ask Before Buying Property in Lagos?
After more than 6 years helping clients buy, sell, lease, and manage property across Lagos and Abuja at J&P Realty Limited, I have come to believe that the single biggest factor separating a smooth property purchase from a painful one is not the size of your budget. It is the quality of the questions you ask before you pay a single naira.
Most buyers walk into a property transaction focused on one question: "Can I afford this?" But the buyers who walk away genuinely happy are the ones who ask a much longer, much sharper list of questions about the seller, the title, the location, the agent, and even their own family's needs.
Below are the ten questions I believe every buyer should ask before purchasing property in Lagos, drawn directly from real situations I have handled, including one in detail that nearly cost a client ₦25.5 million.
1. Can the Owner Accept Installment Payments?
This is the question almost nobody thinks to ask, and it can completely change your negotiating position.
Many buyers assume that property purchases in Lagos must be settled in one lump sum, so they either stretch themselves financially to make a single payment or they walk away from a property they could otherwise afford. In reality, a significant number of sellers are open to structured or installment payments, particularly if the buyer is serious, has a credible payment plan, and is willing to put it in writing.
Asking this question upfront does two things. It opens the door to financing flexibility you may not have known existed, and it immediately tells you something about the seller's flexibility and motivation, which leads directly into later questions about why the property is being sold.
2. Have I Inspected the Property Properly and Has My Family Seen It Too?
I have personally watched this exact question make or break a transaction, and the contrast between the two outcomes still stands out to me.
In one case, a client was so eager to close the deal that he skipped a proper inspection entirely. He never had the property assessed against his actual taste and needs, and worse, he never brought his family to see it before committing. When his family finally did visit, they did not like it at all. By then, the buyer was emotionally and financially committed to a property his own household did not want to live in.
Compare that to another client who did the opposite. He inspected the property thoroughly to confirm it matched his taste and lifestyle, and critically, he involved his family early in the process, including them as a "second party" in the decision. That transaction went smoothly from start to finish, and the client moved into a home that everyone in his household was genuinely happy with.
The lesson is simple but easy to overlook in the excitement of buying property: a property is not just a legal and financial transaction. It is a place your family will live in. Inspect it as if you have to live there for the next twenty years because you very well might.
3. Has a Lawyer Verified That Every Title Document Is Genuine?
This is non-negotiable, and I say this from direct professional experience: you always need a lawyer to confirm that every document is exactly what it claims to be.
It is not enough to simply receive a copy of a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), a Deed of Assignment, or a Survey Plan and assume that because it looks official, it is legitimate. Title documents in Lagos can be forged, altered, or, as you will see in the case study below, copied from an entirely different property and disguised as your own. A qualified lawyer knows how to conduct a proper search at the Land Registry, confirm the document's authenticity against government records, and verify that the plot number, survey coordinates, and ownership history all match what you have been told.
Skipping this step to save a little money on legal fees is, in my experience, one of the most expensive mistakes a buyer can make.
4. What Are All the Costs Involved Beyond the Purchase Price?
Buyers are often blindsided not by the price of the property itself, but by everything that comes after it.
Here is what you should budget for, beyond the agreed sale price:
- Agency fees and legal fees: In my experience, these should together fall within roughly 3 to 4% of the property price when working with a transparent, professional team.
- Survey fees, Governor's Consent, and stamp duty: These are largely fixed costs determined by the relevant government authorities, not negotiable line items that an agent can adjust.
Ask for an itemized breakdown of every single cost before you commit to anything. A transparent agency will give you this without hesitation. An agency that hesitates, deflects, or tells you "we'll sort that out later" is showing you exactly the kind of behavior you should be cautious of. More on that in question 9.
5. What Should I Know About the Location Itself?
Before falling in love with a property, you need to fall in love with or at least thoroughly interrogate its location.
The questions to ask here include: Am I buying this for personal use or as an investment, because that changes what matters most? What is the security situation in this specific street or estate, not just the general area? Does this location have a history of flooding? What is the state of the infrastructure roads, drainage, and power right now, and what future development is planned nearby that could either increase or threaten the property's value? What amenities, such as schools, hospitals, markets, and major roads, are realistically within reach?
A property can have a flawless title and a beautiful interior and still be a poor decision if the location does not match your purpose for buying it, whether that purpose is to live there comfortably or to grow your investment over time.
6. Why Is the Seller Actually Selling?
This question feels almost too simple, but the answer or the seller's reaction to being asked tells you a great deal.
Specifically, you should be asking: Why is the seller selling this property? Is there any dispute, whether family-related, legal, or financial, attached to it? How old is the property, and does its age line up with what you have been told or shown? And critically, can this property legally be used for the purpose you intend, whether that is residential, commercial, or both?
A seller with nothing to hide will usually answer these questions plainly. A seller or an agent representing them, who becomes vague, evasive, or irritated by these questions, is giving you valuable information, even if they never say it outright.
7. How Do I Protect Myself If I'm Buying From Outside Nigeria?
If you are a Nigerian in the diaspora, the core issue you are solving for is different from someone buying while physically present in Lagos.
The real question is not only about the land's legal history, though that still matters enormously. It is about creating a robust, verifiable chain of trust and accountability that substitutes for your physical absence. Because you cannot personally walk the plot, sit across from the seller, or drop in unannounced on the agent's office, you have to build mechanisms that do that work for you.
In practice, this means scrutinizing the people you are dealing with as carefully as you scrutinize the property itself, and structuring your payment so that you are protected if anyone fails to deliver on what was promised. Yes, this adds an extra cost, typically for independent professional verification. But based on what I have seen, that cost is the price of peace of mind and a genuinely secure investment, not an optional extra.
8. Case Study: How Independent Verification Saved a Diaspora Buyer ₦25 Million
This is a real situation I handled, with identifying details changed.
The Client: A UK-based Nigerian doctor, whom we will call Dr. Onyeka, wanted to buy a 4-bedroom duplex in a gated estate in Magodo Phase 2 for ₦85 million. She had found the property through a popular Lagos real estate Instagram page with over 50,000 followers.
The Pitch: The agent sent glossy photographs, a video walkthrough, a copy of a Lagos State C of O, and a "draft" sale agreement. Everything looked polished and professional. The agent then pushed Dr. Onyeka for a 30% deposit of ₦25.5 million to "secure it from other buyers," claiming three other diaspora families were also interested in the same property.
What We Did Differently: Dr. Onyeka hired me to run a full remote verification before she sent a single naira. I did not simply review the documents she had already been given. Instead:
First, I hired an independent surveyor in Lagos to physically visit the site. He called me back forty-five minutes later: the property did not exist. The plot was an empty, overgrown field, with no foundation and no fencing and it had a "For Sale" sign from a completely different agency standing on it. The video walkthrough Dr. Onyeka had received was actually footage of a finished estate in Ajah, not Magodo at all.
Second, I ran a federal and state title search. The C of O she had been given was a scanned copy of a real, legitimate document, but it belonged to an entirely different property in Ikeja, not Magodo. The agent had photoshopped the plot number and survey plan to make it appear to match.
Third, I checked the agent's corporate registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). The business name presented to Dr. Onyeka did not exist. The bank account she had been asked to pay her deposit into was a personal current account under a name that did not even match the agent's name.
The Outcome: Dr. Onyeka lost only the cost of the verification process, roughly ₦350,000 instead of the ₦25.5 million she was about to send. We reported the agent to the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA), and the Instagram page was taken down within two weeks. Dr. Onyeka went on to buy a legitimate property in Anthony Village using a proper escrow structure, and she now lives in it comfortably.
This case is, to me, the clearest possible illustration of why verification is never an unnecessary expense. It is insurance against losing everything.
9. How Do I Tell a Trustworthy Agency Apart From One Cutting Corners?
Given everything that happened in Dr. Onyeka's case, the photoshopped documents, the fake video walkthrough, the pressure tactics, there is one question that would have exposed that fraudulent agent almost immediately:
"Can you show me your LASRERA registration certificate, and can I confirm your registration status directly on the LASRERA website before we proceed?"
In Lagos State, it is now illegal for any individual or organization to practice real estate without a valid certificate of registration from the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA), which exists specifically to regulate property transactions and reduce fraud.
Here is what happens when you ask this single question. A trustworthy agency will provide its certificate number without hesitation and actively encourage you to verify it yourself on the LASRERA website, because they have nothing to hide and welcome the scrutiny as a sign that they are dealing with a serious buyer. A fraudulent agent, by contrast, will typically become defensive, change the subject, claim the registration is "not necessary," or insist they are "in the process" of registering anything to avoid giving you a verifiable answer.
A second, equally revealing question builds directly on the first: "What are all the fees I will be required to pay, and can you confirm that agency fees are within the legally approved range of 0 to 10%?"
Many fraudulent or simply unprofessional operators generate much of their profit through hidden or illegal charges. Government authorities have repeatedly flagged practices like compulsory "inspection fees," undisclosed "documentation fees," "finder's fees," and inflated "caution fees" as either outright illegal or predatory in practice. A trustworthy agency will explain every charge clearly before you proceed and will not flinch at the question. A less scrupulous one may demand inspection fees before even showing a property, charge agency fees well above the legal 10% ceiling, or introduce unexpected fees after you are already emotionally and financially committed.
A professional agency, the standard we hold ourselves to at J&P Realty, will treat these two questions as a sign of a diligent client, not an inconvenience. They will provide their LASRERA details for immediate verification, itemize every fee upfront with no hidden costs, and actively encourage you to bring in your own independent lawyer for further checks. Watch closely for how an agency reacts to being asked these questions. Their reaction will tell you almost everything you need to know.
10. The One Thing to Remember Above All Else
If there is a single takeaway from everything above, it is this: never let urgency override verification, no matter how good the deal looks.
Every story in this post, the client who skipped inspection and left his family out of the decision, the agent pressuring Dr. Onyeka to pay 30% immediately because "other buyers were interested," shares the same root cause. Urgency and trust extended without verification is where Lagos property deals go wrong. The deals that went right, by contrast, all had one thing in common: someone slowed the process down long enough to verify before any money moved.
Before you pay a single naira or dollar toward any property in Lagos, slow down. Verify everything independently, the agent's LASRERA status, the title at the Land Registry, the physical site itself, and never let pressure to "secure it now" rush you past that step. The cost of verification is always smaller than the cost of being wrong.
J&P Realty Limited is a Lagos-based real estate firm specializing in property sales, leasing, rentals, and management across Lagos and Abuja, with dedicated support for Nigerians in the diaspora. We operate on a strict zero inspection fee policy and full transactional transparency. If you have questions about a property you are considering, reach out to us. We are always happy to help, whether or not you ultimately work with us.