CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Housing can be defined as buildings or structures that individuals and their family may live in that meet certain federal regulations. Housing provision policies and approaches have long been implemented in many developing nations in a bid to enhance its affordability as an inevitable human need (Teekhong 2012).
Ademiluyi (2010)opined that housing represents a major area of deprivation for the urban poor. The rate of provision of new housing stock in Nigeria has lagged behind the rate of population growth which is responsible for the formation of slums, growth of squatter settlement and higher rent behind the affordable limit of the poor.
Housing is one of the three basic needs of man and it is the most important for the physical survival of man after the provision of food (Turner 1983, Munonye 2009 and Olayiwola et al 2005). It has a profound influence on the health, social behaviour, satisfaction and general welfare of the community. (Okedele et al 2009) opined that in the assessment of man’s comfort, growth and development, it is inevitable that housing be considered as a critical element.
Over the years, governments had embarked in several housing intervention programme with the objectives of making available and affordable to the majority of the population these housing intervention are reflected in the annual budgetary provisions for housing urban development, and in establishment of institutional frame work for housing development (Diogu et al 2006).
According to Aribigbola (2009), despite the various effort of government, individual and agencies both locally and internationally to improve housing provisions, Nigeria housing problems particularly shortage and affordability still persist. This undo the popular believe to the growing international concern over the issues. Affordable housing according to Andrew (1998), United states department of housing and urban development (2005) is that housing which does not cost more than 30% of the income of the occupant household and that any family that pays 50% or more of household income on housing are considered cost burden and many have difficulty affording other necessities such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care.The provision of basic utilities and services particularly housing is partially the responsibility of the government who has been handicapped in recent time by declining political will and many more factors.
Ajanlekoko (2001) put it that, housing finance by its very nature is capital intensive venture which if it is to be financed through personal finance resources will require slow and tedious accumulation of savings. However since housing finance provides benefit over many years, long-term credit finance is a more logical opinion as it will spread the repayment of burden but this requires the availability of long-term funding and for which there must be institutional capacity, structure and mechanism that will allow a convenient and effective linkage between the savers and investors and the consumer of such funds
The concept of the national housing fund in the national housing policy is to ensure a continuous flow of long-term funding for housing development and to provide affordable loans for low income housing.
It is pertinent to write that Aribigbola (2008) observed that, the national housing policy does not want any Nigerian to spend more than 20% of its income on housing expenditure. This is a welcome development that the realities of the present day Nigerian living condition will not permit.
It is therefore obvious that, if housing affordability, will be within the reach of the average Nigerian, government must be prepared to do more by the way of housing delivery. Hence, research is conducted to assess the affordability of Federal Housing Estate using Oke-Ila Ado-Ekiti as a case study.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The rate of urbanisation in Nigeria has witnessed tremendous increase in the last two decades. Census in the early fifties showed that there were about 56 cities in the country and about 10. 6 of the population lived in these cities. This rose dramatically to 19.1% in 1963 and 24.5% in 1985 (Ajanlekoko, 2001). Today, the national population is now estimated to be about 120 million with the urban consisting about 30%. The rapid growth rate of urban population in Nigeria since the early seventies was mainly due to immigrating induced by the concentration of the gains from oil sector in the urban areas.
Given the expected increases in urban population, the magnitude of housing problem in the country is enormous. According to the National Rolling Plan (NRP) the national housing requirement is between 500,000 and 600,000 units considering the prevailing occupancy ratio of between three and four persons per room (Ojenuwah, 2006; Moughalu, 1999). If this estimated annual requirement was to be provided at an average of N500, 000 per unit, the cost would be enormous and indeed unrealisable. The cost of providing housing alone would be between N250 Trillion and N300 Trillion (excluding the cost of infrastructural development). This is to say that the Government and Mortgage institutions will need this much as capital base to effectively tackle the housing the housing situation.
The phenomenal rise in population, number and size of cities over the past few years have manifested in the acute shortage of dwelling units which resulted in high rents and other ills such as poor urban living condition, high crime rates, low infrastructure services and so on. On the micro- level, it has been observed that house ownership is one of the first priorities for most households and it represents the largest single investment for most (between 50% and 70% of household income). This observation becomes very significant when it is realized that per capital income in Nigeria has been on the decline (currently N 3, 000.00) as well as the real income of the average Nigerian. The rapid up-swing in the prices of building materials in the last five years has further reduced the affordability for most Nigerians. Relating annual requirements for housing with the Gross Domestic product of N 82.53 billion in 1988 and 85.82 billion estimates for 1989, and over 88billion in 1991 as well as per capital income ofN3,000.00, financing becomes a major factor of the problem especially long term funding.
Except the problem of how to finance the construction of housing for all income groups is effectively addressed, the housing affordability problem is bound to further escalate.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- What percentage of the occupants’ income is spent on housing in the study area?
- How affordable are the houses in the estate?
- Does affordable housing affect health?
- How can the policies that govern affordable housing be made in to use?
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this research is to assess housing affordability in Federal Housing Estate using Housing Estate Oke-Ila as a case study.In order to achieve this, the following objectives shall be considered:
- Determining the quality and quantity of housing occupied by different sizes of households and their values.
- Examining the percentage of income spent on housing (rental).
- Suggesting means of making housing affordable.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
This paper would be of greater benefit and importance to those who want to invest in housing estate, it will also help to have a concise knowledge of the possibility advantages of property management and at the same time identify situations that can guide against paucity of participant in the area.
1.6 SCOPEOF THE STUDY
This write-up assesses the affordability of Federal Housing Estate Oke-Ila Ado-Ekiti
1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Apart from financial and time constraints affecting the preparation of this project, other limitations are:
- The uncooperative attitude of some occupants is also a limitation.
- Lack of adequacy write –up
However, despite all the limitations the available data has been comprehensively examined to arrive at a good conclusion.
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