Assessment of Public Housing Affordability in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper assesses the extent of public housing affordability in Kano metropolis. Using survey research design approach, four Housing Estates with a population of 1,635 dwelling units were purposively chosen namely; Danladi Nasidi, Zawaciki, Jido and Wailari. A sample size of 314 households was selected using population proportionate sample size (PPS) while the respondents were selected by simple random sampling technique (SRS). The data was collected using structured interviews and questionnaire survey; where 314 copies of the questionnaires were distributed and 312 retrieved representing 99.4%. The data from the questionnaire was analyzed using Logistic regression analysis to measure the relationship between the major predictors of housing affordability that include income, housing expenditure and housing type. The result shows that the full model containing all predictors was statistically significant, X2 (3, N= 300) = 200,007. The most important predictor among the independent variables was monthly income with odd ratio of 8.618, followed by the housing type which has an odd ratio of 6.196 while monthly expenditure has the least odd ratio of 2.807. This indicates a serious housing affordability problem among the households in the study area. The paper found out that a majority of the respondents was living on rent in the public sector housing estates as a result of housing affordability problems. Data analysis further shows that housing prices are at variance with income of many households in the estates which makes housing affordability a major concern. Based on that, therefore the paper recommends policy review to consider the amount requested for each of the housing units from households willing to purchase the houses. Government should introduce Housing Mortgage system, spreads the payment period and reduces the interest rates to encourage households to own the housing units. Furthermore, the use of local building materials should be encouraged especially by government contractors because they are relatively cheaper and this will reduce the production cost of public housing units thereby increasing the level of affordability among the different socio-economic groups in the society.