By Abdoulie John
The President of the Association of Real Estate Companies (AREC), Aboubacarr Bensouda, has expressed his organisation’s resolve to set out rules and regulations that would govern a booming industry.
Bensouda made the disclosure during an exclusive interview with this medium held at the margins of their Annual General Meeting (AGM) that took place Wednesday at Baobab Hotel in Bijilo.
Over these past years, the real estate industry has really taken off with an unprecedented number of companies operating across the country. However, the eruption of land crisis and court cases has cast doubt on the credibility of the real estate services that some these firms are providing.
“The biggest achievement for 2019 is to put together some sort of regulations that would help government to come up with an appropriate legislation regarding the sector,” Bensouda told this medium.
Set up in 2013, AREC is the umbrella body representation a fast-growing sector, which confronted with mounting challenges.
Bensouda then added that gov’t has requested to be given as reasonable amount of time in order to put everybody together in a three-day conference scheduled to be held in June this year.
He said the consultative meeting will allow government to hear from all stakeholders and put up a proper legislation that would also help root out those who are busy cheating innocent Gambians with fake lease documents of a property.
While acknowledging these challenges, AREC boss said all these problems have to do with the absence of proper legislation in the sector.
Weighing in on the concerns raised by many Disapora Gambians, he advised them to make sure when they are buying land thatthe documents are thoroughly vetted by a law.
Andy Fatty, a Physical Planning Representative, said the government has engaging estate developers to have this meeting done.
“Together we can sit and set out rules and regulations that would guide real estate operations in the Gambia,” he said.
Fatty further stated that he shares people’s concerns over the issue real estate scams as a good number of companies are operating without fulfilling the basics.
“These briefcase companies are causing a lot of damages in the sector,” he voiced out.
He said AREC will provide people with the opportunity to verify the credibility of real estate companies.
More than 40 real estate companies took part in a meeting aimed at regulating regulating the sector.
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