On Friday, June 16, the Real Estate Agents Registration Board warned Kenyans about a new scheme aimed at duping land buyers in Nairobi and other major cities across the country.
In a press conference, board chairperson Eunice Macharia revealed that companies that had previously engaged in shady land deals were rebranding themselves in order to enter the market.
She explained that the rogue businesses were forming new associations in order to target land buyers.
Macharia went on to say that the new associations, which are collaborating with some estate agents, offer to sell land to buyers before duping them out of millions of dollars.
“We have come to express our concern about the proliferation of new organizations attempting to regulate the real estate sector.” The majority of the organizations are reincarnations of land-buying companies and agents who have previously duped Kenyans.
“They come under the guise of being able to sell land to Kenyans. “We also want to warn Kenyans that these organizations do not have the authority to register estate agents,” she added.
Furthermore, Kenyans who had already lost money to shady companies were urged to report the matter to the board and the police.
Macharia also stated that they had enlisted the assistance of the police to investigate the rising number of shady land deals.
“We urge the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to launch investigations into recent cases of fraudulent land-buying companies,” she added.
