A Hedonic Index Model: The Housing Market of Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the usefulness of the hedonic index approach to the study of housing markets in developing countries. The study broadens the geographical scope of the various economic studies of these markets. The current practice of extrapolating empirical findings from studies of housing markets in Latin America and Asia to the less studied markets of African cities is improved on by incorporating direct evidence on housing market conditions from African case studies. This paper uses data from Jos, Nigeria to provide empirical evidence on market parameters describing the hedonic relationships for housing. For the Jos sample, variables measuring the quality of housing structure and of public services in various neighbourhoods are the local hedonic structure descriptors. Some uses of housing hedonic index numbers for housing market policy analysis are presented.