Housing Affordability in Nigeria; an Analysis of Lagos State Government Rent to Own Scheme.

Abstract

The importance of housing as a social good has made it a frequent subject matter of discussion in both developed and developing nations, where it continues to be accorded great attention. Due to cities’ unchecked and widespread urban growth, there is housing scarcity problem in many cities around the world, particularly in developing countries, such as Nigeria. Nigeria housing problem is not just quantitative in nature but also qualitative and unaffordability. Governments at various levels have introduced numerous housing scheme that is geared towards supplying housing and bridging housing gap, however, majority of these housing schemes are still beyond the reach of the low income earners in terms of affordability. Hence, this study assessed the affordability of Lagos State government social housing scheme through the Lagos state rent-to-own-scheme. The study revealed that the housing units are costly and not affordable to low-medium income earners as 2bedroom and 3-bedroom flats are priced at N20,000,000.00 and N25,000,000.00 and above respectively.An applicant of a 2-bedroom flat is expected to pay an initial equity capital of N1, 000,000.00 and N1, 250,000.00 for a 3-bedroom flat, while the residue of the cost is payable for a period of 10years on monthly basis (N158, 333.3 and N197, 916.00 monthly repayment respectively). This is disheartening and appalling social housing scheme as it is not affordable and within the reach of most Nigerians using house price to income ratio as a threshold for measuring affordability It is therefore recommended that government should adopts affordable housing delivery strategies such as cost saving design approach, promotion of local building materials, vertical housing development, mass housing that incorporate sustainable strategies; recycling of building materials for reuse, while also increasing the repayment period from 10years to 15years. When these approaches are adopted, it will aid affordability and integrate low-medium income earners in the social housing scheme