For weeks, Chika Eze, a young professional in Lagos, searched tirelessly for an affordable apartment. She scrolled through endless property listings, made countless phone calls, and endured multiple disappointments. But the real nightmare began when she encountered real estate agents.
“I was asked to pay a ₦5,000 inspection fee before I could even see an apartment,” she recalled. “When I got there, the place was nothing like what I was shown in the pictures. It was smaller, had plumbing issues, and was already occupied by another tenant.”
Chika’s experience is one that many Nigerians can relate to. From excessive agency fees to deceptive listings and last-minute price hikes, real estate agents across the country have turned the simple act of renting a home into a financial and emotional ordeal.
In Nigeria’s major cities, particularly Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, real estate agents act as intermediaries between landlords and prospective tenants. While their role is meant to facilitate transactions, many have turned it into an opportunity for exploitation.
“After I finally found a decent apartment,” said a civil servant in Abuja, Tunde Oladipo, “the agent asked me to pay 10 per cent of the rent as his commission, another 10 per cent for an ‘agreement fee,’ and then a ‘caution fee’ that the landlord never mentioned. In total, I paid nearly N500,000 extra just to secure a place!”
These fees, often unregulated and arbitrarily assigned, have become standard practice, making renting unaffordable for many Nigerians. In some cases, tenants are also asked to pay a year or two of rent in advance—a demand that violates the tenancy laws in several states but is still widely enforced due to housing shortages.
However, estate agents argue that their fees are justified, given the work involved in finding suitable properties and managing transactions. “People don’t see the effort we put in,” said an estate agent in Lagos, Yusuf Balogun. “We spend hours, sometimes days, searching for properties that match clients’ needs. We also have to deal with landlords, negotiate terms, and handle paperwork. Our fees reflect the value we bring.”
However, a common scam rearing its ugly head in Nigeria’s real estate sector is the use of false listings. Agents frequently advertise attractive apartments at competitive prices, only to inform interested tenants that those properties are no longer available upon inquiry. The goal is to lure desperate house hunters into paying inspection fees for substandard alternatives.
A schoolteacher in Port Harcourt, Amaka Obi said, “I saw a two-bedroom flat for N800,000 in a good neighbourhood and called the agent immediately. He told me to meet him the next day for an inspection. When I got there, he said that apartment had just been taken but he had another one for N1.2 million. It was far worse and in a terrible location.”
Such deceitful tactics waste tenants’ time and money, forcing them into compromises they never planned for. In extreme cases, some agents even collect payments for non-existent properties and disappear.
Some estate agents, however, claim that they are not entirely to blame. “Sometimes, landlords give us a listing and then rent it out without informing us,” explained Joy Okafor, a real estate agent in Abuja. “We only find out when a tenant complains. And regarding inspection fees, they help filter out unserious clients. Many people just want to look around with no real intention of renting.”
But in many instances, unscrupulous agents work hand-in-hand with landlords to exploit tenants. Some go as far as collecting rent from multiple prospective tenants for the same apartment, leaving victims stranded when they realise they have been defrauded.
“A colleague of mine paid for an apartment in Surulere, only to discover that three other people had also made payments for the same place,” said a legal practitioner, Kelvin Odili. “The agent vanished, and the landlord claimed he knew nothing about it. The case ended up in court, but my colleague never got his money back,” Odili said.
Even when the fraud is less blatant, many landlords rely on agents to inflate rents beyond the market rate. Tenants are left with little choice but to pay, as housing demand continues to outstrip supply.
Defending their actions, some agents argued that landlords often dictate rental terms, leaving them with little room to negotiate. “We act as middlemen, but landlords call the shots,” said Balogun. “If a landlord insists on collecting multiple years’ rent upfront, we have no power to change that. We can only advise tenants based on the market reality.”
The government has attempted to regulate the real estate sector, with Lagos State enacting the Tenancy Law of 2011, which prohibits excessive rent collection and mandates fair dealings. However, enforcement remains weak.
Real estate experts and consumer rights advocates are calling for stricter oversight of real estate agents and landlords. “There should be a regulatory body ensuring that all real estate agents are licensed and held accountable for unethical practices. We also need a standardised fee structure so that tenants are not at the mercy of arbitrary charges,” suggests a property lawyer, Bunmi Adewale.
Meanwhile, some tenants are turning to online platforms that connect them directly with landlords, eliminating the need for agents altogether. But this option is still limited, as many landlords preferred to work through agents.
It is noteworthy that the high agency fees come with more than 100 per cent increase in the costs of rent across the country over the last two years, all being shoved the throats of tenants, whose incomes have not changed substantially over the same period.
For renters like Chika, Tunde, and Amaka, the dream of securing decent housing at a fair price remains a struggle. Until stronger regulations are enforced, real estate agents will continue to dictate the terms—often at the expense of the very people they are supposed to serve.
