Lagos govt to property owners: Get planning permits or lose your buildings

Lagos State Government has raised concern over low rate recorded in the number of applications for building planning permit approvals in the state, and quickly warned homeowners to obtain the approvals or face strict sanctions, including demolition.

The State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Olumide Oluyinka, issued the warning on Wednesday at a press conference, which took place in Alausa, Ikeja, ahead of the 2025 Stakeholders’ Engagement, themed: “Planning Permit: The Rebirth.”

Oluyinka, while issuing the warning, noted that there was an annual 20,000 deficit in the approval rate in the state, stating that only 18,000 applications for planning permits were submitted in 2024, far short of the expected 45,000.

The commissioner warned that the state government would no longer consider buildings without valid permits for compensation when affected by development projects, saying that it was determined to address the challenges in getting building plans approval through a week-long stakeholders’ engagement which would be rounded off on Friday 26, September, 2025.

Oluyinka insisted that any structure without approval from the state government risked being demolished, adding that the engagement was to enlighten the public especially those at the rural areas on the need to obtain planning permits for proper documentation.

Speaking further, the commissioner explained that the state government recorded 12,000 approvals in 2024, but noted that, based on the growing population and the number of buildings in the state, the appropriate figure should be in the range of 40,000 to 45,000 approvals within a year.

“On Monday, we had a debate session with the children. We are having a press briefing today and Friday, we will have an invite for the stakeholders whereby professionals in the field of building environment, from town planners to architects to engineers, to builders, surveyors, and by extension, estate developers because they are very, very important stakeholders to us in this sector.

“And the whole idea is for us to sit down together and jointly examine what are the challenges. A lot of people, including market women, the majority of them are not yet aware of the importance of planning permit. So, those are the reasons why we decided to engage on this stakeholders meeting for the whole of this week.

“We recorded 12,000 approvals for planning permit. We should be talking about something like in the range of 40,000 to 45,000 which means we are still below the average mark. And that’s why we decided that it is important for us to continuously engage the members of the public and to, as a way of addressing the problems identified.

“Why are we still having no response, no cooperation from the public? So that’s one of the key points of this stakeholders’ engagement,” he said.

“And the strategy is going back to the grassroots in this space. As our grassroots refers to the children who are going to be the leaders of tomorrow, who are going to take up these positions as operators and also as members of the public, that will engage in all forms of development to let them know the importance of the planning permit.

“Because the importance of this permit cannot be over-emphasised. Just like if a child is born, it’s given a name and by extension, a birth certificate. So the birth certificate also promotes what we have in the building sector, that the building must be increasing by way of learning.

“Also, it helps the government in terms of data collection for the purposes of physical development of the state and this we decided to do.

“And there are going to be a lot of other exercises that will come up as a way of going down to the grassroots so that they will understand the importance,” he added.