DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL FOR MEASUREMENT OF URBAN INCREMENTAL HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL FOR MEASUREMENT OF URBAN INCREMENTAL HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA ESTATE MANAGEMENT PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS

ABSTRACT

Housing affordability is an issue at the centre of housing policy debates. The conventional housing affordability models that deal with access to homeownership are based on the housing market practices prevalent in the Western countries where homes are usually purchased with formal mortgages. These measures are not suitable for markets in developing countries like Nigeria where homes are usually built incrementally with informal financing. The study built a housing affordability model for measuring access to homeownership by the incremental building process practiced in Nigeria with focus on Kaduna State. Data was collected through a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 450 households selected through the stratified random sampling. The binary logistic equation and its diagnostics were used to build the housing affordability model. The one-way ANOVA and the two-sample t-test were also used to analyse the data. The results indicated that household income, savings, and education are determinants of housing affordability with positive impact. Conversely, household size, current housing expenditures, non-housing expenditures, cost of land, and building cost relative to income are determinants of affordability with negative impact. Geographical difference in housing affordability in the state is not significant. However, significant affordability differences exist across household income distribution and educational levels of household heads, and between households that own residential land and those that do not. Policy that empowers households to make greater savings will be the most effective in improving housing affordability. The study concluded that households’ housing affordability is shaped by household finance and demography, housing costs and costs of household necessities and that the solutions to housing affordability problems are located within and outside the housing sector. An integration of measures that support household savings and wealth creation, ease access to residential land, and bring down urban house rents and costs of household necessities is necessary to improve urban housing affordability.


CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Housing affordability is a central issue in the contemporary housing policy debates. It is an important subject in both academic and policy research. It is one of the topics that have dominated housing discussions in the past three decades. In fact, the question of housing affordability is one housing issue that has attracted global concerns, generating discourse at national and international levels across countries, both developed and developing. The importance of housing affordability in human settlement cannot be over-emphasised. This thesis presents the outcomes of a research on housing affordability in Nigeria, focusing particularly on the affordability of accessing homeownership. This chapter presents the introductory aspects of the work.

DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL FOR MEASUREMENT OF URBAN INCREMENTAL HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA ESTATE MANAGEMENT PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS