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The Africa issue
Edited by Akin Olawore
1. Introduction
Property management, no doubt, is a lucrative and professional venture of caring for the building, its components and services. Its importance is seen in its ability to consciously guide and tailor an investor's investment in land into a profitable venture ([20] Scarret, 1995). Not only has it been described as the governance of property rights in landed property ([24] Yiu et al. , 2006), a venture which requires diligence, commitment and special skills for its practice, but its effective utilisation also ensures the optimisation of the investment return to the owner. This suggests the need for properly trained and well experienced professionals to handle property management, the main task of which is commonly believed to be the highest investment of a household ([14] Nubi, 2002). Regardless of this, it can be argued that many non-professionals are not only dominating the practice of property management, some of them seem to be patronised by clients more than trained professionals.
The incursion of non-professionals into property management practice, owing to its investment attribute seems not to be limited to real estate practice, but appears to be an issue being experienced in almost all professions. The menace presented by the untrained but self-acclaimed property managers could be quite devastating. Many unsuspecting property owners are reported in the popular press to have lost their hard earned income into the hands of quacks, while the image of the profession in the real estate could be daunted by the activities of the unauthorised property managers whose activities and infiltration seems to be on the increase.
In addition to a lack of requisite knowledge for practice, non-professionals, otherwise called quacks, practice outside the regulated ethics of the profession ([12] Machua, 2003). Their practice has the tendency to erode public confidence in the profession, where as, professionals can only survive if the public have confidence in them ([18] Poon, 2003). If a profession is to command public confidence this depends on two essential elements, professional knowledge and ethical conduct ([4] Chalkley, 1994).
[19] RICS (2006) Commercial Property Practice identified three levels of competencies required of commercial property managers, these are, knowledge, skills and experience. First, a property manager must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of...