Lagos State reviews land values in Blue Book 2026 to align with market realities

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Keypoints

• The Lagos State Government held a stakeholders’ engagement on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, to discuss the reviewed Fair Market Value (FMV), commonly called the Blue Book.
• The Blue Book 2026 is designed to align land-related charges with current market prices to ensure transparency and fairness in land administration.
• Initially established by an Executive Order in 2015, the framework requires a mandatory review every five years to account for urban growth and economic shifts.
• Permanent Secretary of the Lands Bureau, Mr. Kamal Olowosago, emphasized that the review aims to improve the ease of doing business rather than simply increasing costs.
• The update is expected to boost investor confidence, reduce land-related disputes, and provide a more reliable database for state planning and taxation.

Main Story

Lagos State is updating its “price list” for land to match the rapid real estate expansion across the state.

At a meeting in Ikeja on Tuesday, officials unveiled the reviewed Blue Book 2026, a legal framework used to determine the Fair Market Value (FMV) of land in different zones.

Since the first edition was issued in 2015, the state has used this gazetted document to calculate land-related charges, but outdated values have recently led to distortions between government rates and actual street prices.

Mr. Kamal Olowosago, the Permanent Secretary of the Lands Bureau, explained that the 2026 review is built on four pillars: market alignment, revenue optimization, transparency, and the ease of doing business.

By ensuring that government valuations reflect current reality, the state hopes to eliminate the “hidden costs” and long negotiation delays that often stall real estate transactions.

While some residents expressed concern over potential price hikes, Olowosago assured stakeholders that the goal is a structured and predictable system that actually encourages investment by making land administration more credible.

The Issues

The primary challenge is the valuation-lag gap; because the market for Lagos real estate moves so quickly (especially in areas like Epe and Ibeju-Lekki), a five-year review cycle may still leave the Blue Book lagging behind real-world prices. Authorities must solve the problem of public-perception, as many residents view any “market alignment” as a disguised tax increase during a time of economic strain.

Furthermore, there is a data-integrity risk; for the Blue Book to be effective, the Lands Bureau must ensure its database is accessible and that officials cannot manually override the standardized values to favor certain developers. To succeed, the state must pair this review with a fully digital land registry that allows buyers to verify FMV prices instantly via a mobile app or website.

What’s Being Said

• “This process is not about increasing costs, but about ensuring that valuations reflect reality in a structured manner,” stated Kamal Olowosago.
• Olowosago noted that maintaining outdated values creates “distortions and inequity,” whereas the new system ensures fairness.

What’s Next

• The Lagos State Government is expected to publish the updated Blue Book 2026 in the State Gazette to give it full legal effect for the next five years.
• The Lands Bureau is anticipated to roll out sensitization workshops for legal practitioners and estate surveyors to explain how the new valuation methodology works.
• Real estate developers are likely to adjust their project costings based on the new land-related charges for different zones across the state.
• The state may introduce digital tools that allow property owners to calculate their land charges based on the Blue Book values without visiting a physical office.

Bottom Line

The Blue Book 2026 is an attempt to bring the “real world” into the government’s land offices. By closing the gap between official rates and market prices, Lagos aims to create a more transparent real estate sector where investors know exactly what they are paying for, and the state collects fair revenue for its infrastructure projects.