10 Red Flags That Tell You a Nigerian Property Developer Cannot Be Trusted

Who This Checklist Is For

This is for anyone preparing to commit money to an off-plan apartment, a serviced estate plot, or any developer-led project in Nigeria. It does not matter whether the asking price is 4 million in Mowe or 45 million on the Lekki-Epe corridor. The same traps exist at every price point.

I have walked hundreds of sites across Lagos, Ibadan, and Ogun State. I have seen developers who genuinely deliver and developers who use one buyer's deposit to pay another buyer's refund while construction sits idle. The difference between the two groups is almost always visible before you pay a single kobo, if you know what to look for.

Run every developer you are considering against this list. If they trigger 3 or more of these flags, walk away. The Nigerian market has enough credible options that you never need to gamble with your savings.

Flags 1 to 3: The Documentation Problems

The most reliable way to vet a property developer in Nigeria starts with paper, not personality. A smooth-talking developer with charisma and a beautiful brochure is worthless if the land title cannot survive 10 minutes of scrutiny at the Land Registry.

• Flag 1: They cannot produce the title document for the land. Ask to see the Certificate of Occupancy, the Governor's Consent, or a registered deed of assignment. If they offer you a "receipt" or a "Letter of Allocation" as the primary title evidence, that is a serious problem. Plots around the Sagamu-Ore road in Ogun State with proper C of O command 1.5 to 4 million per plot precisely because that documentation makes the land bankable. Without it, you own nothing a court will protect.
• Flag 2: The building plan approval is missing or vague. Every legitimate development in Lagos, Ibadan, or Ogun State requires approved building plans from the relevant state authority. Ask for the approval letter and the approved plan drawing. If they say it is "in process" after marketing has already started, construction timelines are fiction.
• Flag 3: They resist doing business through a lawyer-supervised agreement. Any developer who pushes back when you say you want a lawyer to review the contract before signing is protecting terms that will not survive scrutiny. This is non-negotiable. Period.

Flags 4 to 6: The Track Record Problems

A developer's history is public information if you are willing to spend 2 hours finding it. Most buyers do not bother. That is exactly what fraudulent developers count on.

• Flag 4: They cannot show you a completed project you can physically visit. Ask for the address of their last completed estate. Drive there. Talk to residents. If they have been operating for 3 years and cannot point you to a single finished, occupied development, they are building their portfolio with your money and no guarantee of delivery.
• Flag 5: Their company registration is less than 2 years old but their pitch sounds like they have been doing this for decades. Search the Corporate Affairs Commission portal at cac.gov.ng. The registration date, company type, and directors are public record. A fresh registration is not automatically disqualifying, but a fresh registration combined with big promises and no completed projects is a very dangerous combination.
• Flag 6: Online reviews and references are either absent or suspiciously uniform. Search the company name alongside words like "scam," "delay," and "refund" on Google, Nairaland, and Twitter/X. One complaint can be noise. A pattern of complaints about the same project stalling is signal. Call 2 of their listed past buyers directly, not the ones they refer you to, the ones you find yourself.

I cannot overstate how much free intelligence is sitting on Nairaland forums alone. Buyers who have been burned almost always post about it. Ten minutes of searching has saved more than a few of my clients from catastrophic losses.

Flags 7 and 8: The Financial Warning Signs

How a developer handles money tells you everything about how they will handle yours. Watch the payment structure carefully before you commit.

• Flag 7: The payment plan demands more than 50% upfront with no construction milestone tied to the balance. A credible developer structures payments against progress: foundation, decking, roofing, finishing. When someone wants 70% or 100% upfront on an off-plan unit with no escrow arrangement and no milestone schedule written into the contract, they are asking you to fund a project they have not yet proven they can execute.
• Flag 8: Pricing is dramatically below the market rate for that corridor without a clear explanation. If plots in a Lagos mainland corridor like Ikorodu are selling at 4 to 8 million and someone is offering you a plot in a "similar location" for 1.2 million, that price gap is not a deal. It is a question. Land in Nigeria does not get cheap by accident. Either the title is defective, the location is misrepresented, or the government has acquisition rights over it that the developer is not disclosing.

Flags 9 and 10: The Behavioral Red Flags

Beyond paper and money, watch how the developer behaves when you ask hard questions. That behavior is a preview of how disputes will be handled if things go wrong.

• Flag 9: They create artificial urgency around the offer. "Only 3 plots left at this price, the price goes up Monday" is a sales tactic, not a market reality. Serious developers with genuine projects do not need to pressure you into deciding in 48 hours. Urgency is the tool of people who cannot afford for you to think clearly or do proper due diligence.
• Flag 10: They cannot give you a clear answer about encumbrances, government acquisitions, or community disputes. In Lagos and Ogun State especially, family land disputes and government acquisition notices have buried dozens of estate projects. Ask directly: is any part of this land subject to a government acquisition notice, a court injunction, or an unresolved family title dispute? A trustworthy developer will answer directly and show you the survey plan with beacons intact. An evasive answer to this question is the most expensive red flag on this entire list.

The behavioral flags are where gut instinct and professional experience meet. I have sat across from developers who had every document in order but whose answers to hard questions revealed they were improvising. Trust your discomfort. Then verify it.

How to Verify Before You Pay Anything

Running this checklist is not complicated. It requires about 3 to 5 business days of focused effort before you commit money. Here is what that verification process looks like in practice:

• Request the title document and take it to the Lagos State Land Registry at Alausa, the Ogun State Land Registry in Abeokuta, or the Oyo State equivalent in Ibadan for a search. A land search costs between 10,000 and 50,000 naira depending on the state and confirms whether the title is genuine and unencumbered.
• Hire an independent surveyor to verify the survey plan and confirm the beacons on site match the coordinates on paper. A good surveyor charges between 50,000 and 150,000 naira for this service. It is cheap insurance against buying land that exists only on a document.
• Engage a property lawyer to review the sales agreement before signing. Their job is to find the clauses that protect the developer while leaving you exposed, and there are almost always some.
• Visit the physical site at least once unaccompanied by the developer's agent. Talk to neighbouring landowners about the history of that land. They know things no brochure will tell you.
• Search the CAC portal for the developer's registration details and cross-reference the directors' names with any past legal proceedings.

None of these steps are extraordinary. They are standard practice in any market where buyer protection is weak. Nigeria's mortgage penetration sits below 5% of GDP, which means most buyers are transacting with cash or near-cash. When that much money moves without institutional protection, personal due diligence is not optional. It is your only safety net.

Key takeaways

• Request the physical title document and conduct a Land Registry search before paying any deposit, regardless of how credible the developer appears.
• Visit at least 1 completed project delivered by the developer and speak to residents directly, not contacts referred by the developer's sales team.
• Search the Corporate Affairs Commission portal at cac.gov.ng to confirm the company's registration date, directors, and legal standing before signing anything.
• Any developer who cannot give a direct answer about government acquisition notices or family title disputes on the land should be disqualified immediately.
• Never accept urgency as a reason to skip due diligence. A legitimate plot or unit will still be available after you complete a 5-day verification process.