The Real Estate Agents Registration Board on Friday, June 16, cautioned Kenyans of a new scheme aimed at swindling land buyers in Nairobi and other major towns across the country.
Addressing the media, the board's chairperson Eunice Macharia revealed that companies that had previously been engaged in shoddy land deals were rebranding themselves to enter the market.
She explained that the rogue companies were forming new associations to target land buyers.
Macharia added that the new associations, working in cohorts with some estate agents, offer to sell land to buyers before scamming them in deals worth millions.
"We are here to express concern over the proliferation of new associations seeking to regulate the real estate sector. Most of the associations are mutations of land-buying companies and agents that have previously swindled Kenyans.
"They come in the pretence that they are able to sell land to Kenyans. We also want to warn Kenyans that these groupings have no mandate to register estate agents," she added.
Further, Kenyans who had already lost their hard-earned money to dubious companies were urged to report the matter to the board and the police.
Macharia also added that they had sought the help of the police to investigate the increasing rise of shoddy land deals.
"We urge the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to commence investigations on cases of fraudulent land-buying companies that have happened in the recent past," she added.
In recent years, a number of Kenyans have been conned by agents and companies in land deals with Kenyans urged to carry out due diligence during land purchases.
Some of the other tricks unearthed are the placement of advertisements in daily newspapers - a move that makes many Kenyans believe that the companies are legit.
Therefore, one should verify the registration of the companies with the board, only pay after visiting the property and carry out numerous site visits.
