19 Aug 2011

Vanuatu valuer suspects real estate company behind arson

1:24 pm on 19 August 2011

A land valuer in Vanuatu says he believes a real estate company is behind the arson of his truck.

Levi Tarosa's truck was destroyed in a blaze that police have confirmed was started in three separate places by an accelerant.

Mr Tarosa says he's helped his custom landowner clients extricate themselves from land leases which he says had been secured through fraudulent means.

He says the expatriate owner of a real estate company had threatened him for pointing out to a landowner how she was underpaid for her beach front plot of land.

Mr Tarosa says the woman had been paid just five percent of the market price of the plot.

He says despite a National Land Summit five years ago, which drew attention to land speculation, landowners have yet to get genuine market prices for the sale of their lands.