Drivers influencing effective housing finance towards home-ownership in Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the plethora of Housing finance programs and related policy debates over the years, few studies have reported the key drivers for supporting effective Housing finance operation towards Home mortgage transactions. The involvement of government and associated Housing professionals is argued to play a vital role in encouraging homeownership and eliminating mortgage market weakness, ineffectiveness, and discriminations. However, without an understanding of the key factors that can support Housing mortgage transactions, policy initiation, implementation and subsequent response is merely a shot in the dark. More so, as being a minority is not synonymous to poverty, different programs initiated to deal with Homeownership of the different income class in Nigeria have yielded little or no result due to the lack proper planning and implementation, which further affect the discussions of their merits. This paper identified key drivers that can influence effective Housing Finance in Nigeria, with reference to the National Housing Fund scheme. Focus group discussion was used in obtaining the required information alongside partial literature review. NVivo was used for the analysis, while four drivers of effective Housing finance were identified and validated as important factors by Housing related professionals. The result suggests that the strength and benefits of the country’s Housing finance system can be improved through these factors. Hence, the drivers can aid the stakeholders’ understanding of the key areas to be considered in improving the Housing Finance system while supporting mortgage transactions towards Homeownership of all income class across the country. This can positively stimulate the Housing market’s operations, provide job opportunities, and support other sectors’ activities.