Private Estate Housing Productivity in Greater Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

The housing deficit in Nigeria is reportedly of the order of 17 million units. The private sector remains the major supplier as in some other developing countries. However, productivity in Nigeria is hampered by many factors, including high cost of building materials, difficulty in obtaining title to land, a weak mortgage financing sector, and delay in obtaining building permit. In the study area, Greater Port Harcourt City, there is paucity of information on various aspects of housing, including supply, demand, nature of housing provided, satisfaction levels and relationship between housing and stage in the family life cycle. Therefore, the objectives of the research were to: (1) Ascertain the state of private residential housing estate development in GPHC; (2) ascertain the sources of private residential housing and the relative importance of private vis-a-vis public residential housing delivery; (3) critically examine the number, type and quality of housing provided in private residential estates and their functionality from the point of view of beneficiaries; and (4) ascertain bottlenecks to private residential estate housing delivery. This study was undertaken as a cross-sectional survey of (1) a probability sample of all persons residing in privately built estates and (2) all individuals or corporate firms who have supplied at least 4 building units and above constructed between 1978 and 2014 in Greater Port Harcourt City (GPHC). The research design used was the “passive-observational” method. The number of questionnaires administered to estate residents was 400 while the number administered to estate developers was 76. The study relied on two sources of information – primary and secondary. Primary sources comprised (a) a largely pre-coded questionnaire, administered face-to-face by trained interviewers, (b) Individual Depth Interviews (IDIs) of key informants, (c) direct observation, (c) measurement, and (d) photography. Secondary sources included: (a) unpublished and published material in past theses, books, journals, maps, etc; and (b) the Internet. Data analysis utilised mainly univariate and multivariate statistical analytical techniques. Analysis was carried out with the aid of the microcomputer – adapted Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 16. The results showed that 1,761 housing units — mostly in Obio/Akpor LGA (80%) — were built by the private sector as opposed to 3,453 units by government. Housing types were single-family bungalow (28.3%), multi-family block of flats (26.8%), single-family storey building (18.8%), “wagon” rooming house (4.3%) and “courtyard” rooming house (1.8%). Four predictor variables — Access to Land, Mortgage Financing, Building Permit, and Title to Land could explain 85% of the variation in the dependent variable, Private Housing Productivity, with Title to Land being the most important. The study concluded, among others, that (a) the pace of private sector housing development in Greater Port Harcourt City was far short of what is needed to satisfy demand, given a population of the order of 2,000,000 growing at 5.8% per annum. Recommendations of the study include (a) Stamp Duty Subsidy such as “instruments, payable on documents such as Lease / Tenancy Agreements, Sale Purchase, Agreements, Transfer and Mortgages. (b)Government should formulate policies and implement techniques that promote liveability in Greater Port Harcourt City. (c) Making land available for estate developers or regulating the price of land can be implemented.