Low Income-Affordable Housing Strategies for Mass Housing Development in Edo State
Chapter One
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to investigate the low income affordable housing strategies for mass housing development in Edo state in Nigeria.
Objectives of the Study
This study sought to achieve the following objectives:
- To establish how the building materials influence provision of low cost housing in Edo state
- To examine how cost of land influences provision of low cost housing in Edo state
- To examine how availability of land influences provision of low cost housing in Edo state
- To examine how infrastructure development influences provision of low cost housing in Edo state
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter presents a review of literature on provision of low cost housing. The chapter discusses general theoretical and empirical review on provision of low cost housing. Past studies on factors that affects provision of low cost housing. A conceptual framework is drawn and discussed to emphasize on the factor influencing provision of low cost housing.
Housing Needs and Demand for Low- Cost Housing
Housing need is defined by the UN to include demographic, replacement and vacancy elements (Rakodi, 1992). In other words, housing needs result from population growth and new household formation, overcrowding and when households are paying more than they can afford for housing. Housing need is considered to be an instrumental need because one cannot fulfill instrumental housing need without meeting our basic need (King, 1999). King distinguished instrumental needs and basic needs. The former occurs because of particular ends we choose and the later is what we have by being human. However, King argues that, need is a relative term and is best defined individually within a particular cultural context and that, if one chooses housing with high level of amenity he must also fulfill his basic need as those high level ones. For example, according to UNCHS (1996), low-cost houses peoples spent more proportion of their income on housing than upper-income households and that the low-income groups have diversity of demand for housing. This diversity arises from the fact that the low-income groups may have nothing to spend on housing because all their income is spend on daily necessities (basic needs) and therefore how much income is available for housing affects their demand for housing. Again, the decision on how much to spend on housing is influenced by location, size and quality of housing, infrastructure and services.
Empirical Review
Greene and Rojas (2004) argue that, the land value constitutes a significant proportion of the total cost of financing incremental housing construction process and that access to low cost land is very essential in making the overall process viable. As indicated above, land prices are determined mainly by location and development potential of the land. The location factor determines city growth and it is influenced by the construction of trunk infrastructure which further determines the supply of serviced land in the urban setting. The development potential of land is influenced by land use and building standards which can either limit land available for development or increase the supply. Because of the great influence of these two factors on land prices especially in central locations in urban areas, it stands to reason that, low-cost land can only be located at the periphery of these areas where there is lack of infrastructure and other basic social services. This explains why many incremental housing constructions process takes place at the periphery of cities. It is only in few circumstances that incremental housing construction take place in central location and this happens because of illegal occupation of public lands where the occupants do not really pay for the full cost of the land.
Population growth and its implications on urban low-income housing in the developing countries and its environment population is a critical factor in planning to provide the urban low-income groups in developing countries with low-income housing. Accordingly, Asiama (1990) suggested that in Ghana two people per room indicated crowding, and overcrowding occurs when there are 2.5 or more people per room. His study indicates that roughly 44.5% of all households live in overcrowded housing in West Africa. This situation has serious implications for unhealthy environments both in the short and long run. The current housing conditions in Enugu, the Capital City, are far from ideal.
With some perceived inadequacies in housing policies and programs of various governments in Enugu since the civilian regime. After the Civil War of 1967, there have often been housing policy and programs implemented on an ad-hoc basis lacking sound empirical analysis. It goes beyond hindering sustainable development because development usually has major effects on the environment. The Asiama review stands as the first step in attempts to improve the housing situation in Enugu and to suggest policies that may aid in improving the housing balance to be within the reach of the low- income group in Enugu. However, both population-growth and poverty are growing rapidly in the urban centers of the developing countries without economic growth.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter of the research provides details on how the study was carried out. It includes the research design, the target population, sampling method, the sources of data and the various tools and techniques that will be employed in gathering the data. The chapter also provides the methods that were adopted in the data processing, analysis and reporting.
Research Design
The study adopted descriptive survey design. A descriptive survey typically seeks to ascertain respondents’ perspectives or experiences on a specified subject in a predetermined structured manner. Survey research consists of structured questions to assess behaviors, beliefs or attitudes within a population. According to Kothari (2004), a descriptive design involves planning, organizing, collection and analysis of data so as to provide information being sought. Descriptive research design portray the variables by answering who, what, and how questions. The design was deemed appropriate for this study because the main interest is to explore low income affordable housing strategies for mass housing development in Edo state.
Target Population
According to Cooper and Schindler (2008), a population is a well defined set of people, services, elements, and events, group of things or households that are being investigated. The target population of this study was 120 property development entities in Edo state as listed by the Nigeria Property Developers Association (KPDA). By population the researcher means complete census of the sampling frames. The population of interest in this study is homogeneous everyone has equal chance to be included in the final sample that is drawn.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION
Introduction
This chapter focuses on data analysis, presentation, interpretation and discussion. Analysis is done on the basis of the data which has been collected in this study. Data has been collected through questionnaires which were hand-delivered and collected by the researcher from a sample of 30 respondents.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter contains a summary of the findings, discussions, conclusions and recommendations inferred from the findings. This research was carried out with a main purpose of investigating low income affordable housing strategies for mass housing development solutions in Edo state in Nigeria. The study was guided by the following research objectives; to examine how building materials, cost of land, availability of land and infrastructure development influence provision of low cost housing in Edo state. This chapter also contains the recommendations for further studies made at the end of the study.
Summary of the Findings
The study established that provision of low cost housing in Edo state in Nigeria is influenced by un-availability of building materials. This coupled by the law of supply and demand leads to a situation where building materials cost is very high. It was established that building materials constitute the largest cost factor in the construction of a house in some cases accounting for as much as 60% and above of the total cost of construction. Due to the increasing cost of materials, there have been attempts to develop cheap, alternative building materials for years. The study established that the use of alternative building materials has not been well embraced in Edo state, with only 28% of the respondents indicating that they had used alternative building materials and solutions in their projects. Respondents who confirmed having used alternative building materials mentioned the use of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) panels, stabilized soil blocks and modular housing solutions and they indicated that they attained reasonable cost savings of upto 40% by the use of the alternative building materials as compared to the conventional materials like masonry blocks. Respondents however stated that as much as they would have wished to use alternative building materials, they lacked information on viable products to use, especially the researched options. Local Architects and designers were blamed for being too conservative when it comes to specifying use of alternatives to the conventional building materials and technology. It was discovered that people’s culture and beliefs do affect people’s choice of building materials. Poor cultural perception on some proposed alternative building materials like soil blocks hinders their use. Rigid specification of building materials in the building code denies developers the opportunity to use locally available and alternative building materials which would be cheaper.
The study also established that provision of low cost housing in Edo state in Nigeria is influenced by insufficient suitable land for development. High levels of urban population have led to increased levels of competition for suitable land for development. It was established that, for low cost housing to make sense, there must be mass development of housing units so as to absorb the cost of land which was found out to be very high. Finding land in Edo state for developing mass housing units, without creating a slum is almost impossible. It was also found out that location of land, nature and distribution of employment centers, availability of transportation and other public infrastructural services do affect suitability of development land. It was discovered that weak land allocation systems, ineffective land tenure systems, ineffective special planning and cultural ties to land limit availability of suitable development land thus affecting the provision of low cost housing in Edo state to a very great extent. High levels of competition for suitable land in Edo state and the bureaucratic land acquisition procedures also hinder availability of land for development.
The study established that cost of land for housing development in the Edo state has been a major challenge in addressing provision of low cost housing for the low and middle income class. This was evidenced by how the respondents felt that the current land prices in Edo state were very expensive. These high costs of land will have to be absorbed by the buyers of these housing units and this will not make business sense if the target is low cost housing. Pricing of land and availability of land was found to be determined by the distance from services and amenities, nearness to commercial, academic, health facilities and availability of public transport and therefore the further land is from the city centre. High land rates and levies, bureaucratic land acquisition procedures, high land transaction costs and scarcity of suitable development land in Edo state affects cost of land. On the other hand high demand for suitable development land, cultural ties to land and unregulated property market in Edo state affects cost of land.
The study established that failure by the County and National Governments to provide the requisite infrastructure services has made the provision of low-cost housing untenable to a very great extent. High cost of providing infrastructure amenities, availability of roads, electric power, water, sewerage system and solid waste management system affects provision of low cost housing. Lack of Local government’s facilitation of off-site infrastructure and land servicing (i.e. development of trunk infrastructure, water & sanitation, etc.) has led to developers having to incur infrastructure costs themselves and then charging the buyers for it to compensate the costs. The effect of this is high sale prices for housing units which will be unaffordable to many.
The study established that 86.5. % of provision of low cost housing varied with variation in low income affordable housing strategies for mass housing development solutions and which was statistically significant with P-Value of 0.001 less than 0.05 at a confidence level of 95%. It was clearly revealed that there existed a negative relationship between the building materials, cost of land, availability of land and lack of infrastructure services and provision of low cost housing in Edo state.
Conclusion of the Findings
Through the course of this study it became clear that main low income affordable housing strategies for mass housing development are building materials, availability land, costs of land and infrastructure development.
The study concluded that availability and cost of building materials, un-availability of suitable land for development coupled with high costs of land and low levels of infrastructure development directly influence provision of low cost housing. Land is scarce, is increasingly expensive, which makes owning or even renting prohibitive, unless social housing is available, the low income households have no choice but to either live in overpriced rental housing. Cost of land contributes significantly to the total cost of providing a housing unit. Unavailability of land which is conditioned by in efficient land tenure systems which is inextricably linked with historical, cultural, legal and economic factors and it influences provision of low cost housing. Majority of developers find difficulties in finding suitable land to put up low income schemes and if such land is available the cost will be prohibitive for a low cost housing development. Provision of low cost housing has also been hugely affected inadequate infrastructure services. High cost of providing infrastructure amenities and lack of Local government’s facilitation of off-site infrastructure and land servicing has led to developers having to incur infrastructure costs themselves and then charging the buyers leading to high housing prices which is unaffordable to many.
Recommendation
From the findings and the conclusion the study recommends that a comprehensive and well-coordinated support infrastructure is central to the provision of low cost housing. The high expense of developing houses due to high costs of building materials, land and infrastructure which has kept off potential developers from the low cost housing sector needs to be addressed.
There needs to be encouraged use of alternative building materials and technologies. Construction consultants should direct the industry towards embracing the new technologies that will see developers achieving substantial savings in the cost of development. Research should be encouraged to develop alternative building materials from locally available raw materials.
Land and housing markets should have protective but flexible regulations as regulations in the country often lack flexibility and adaptability to the local urban development circumstances bearing a significant relevance to land and housing markets. Property
prices should be regulated as the country has an unregulated property market which has seen property rates escalate to levels that the majority of the population cannot afford.
Local and National Government should facilitate development of off-site infrastructure and land servicing (i.e. development of trunk infrastructure, water & sanitation, etc.) which is a critical component of the realization of the right to adequate housing. Incentives like tax exemption on infrastructure projects should be put in place by the Government to motivate private developers where they have to incur the cost of putting up off site infrastructure services.
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