A TERM PAPER
ON
HOUSING DELIVERY
AS SUBMITTED BY
ORESEGUN ADEDAPO T
F/HD/06/3510041
OF
H.N.D 1 BUILDING TECHNOLOGY
TO
MR. E. A. ADETOLA
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1.0INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Housing is one of the 3 most significant in the sustainability of human
existence with considerable economic, social, cultural and personal
importance. The production of housing is has been influenced largely by
policies, innovation and the ability to sustain the environment.
Housing encompasses all social services and utilities that make life
meaningful and the environment habitable. The problems that affect readily
housing delivery in Nigeria are enormous and very complex. These
problems in most of our urban cities in Nigeria encompasses the availability
of housing units both in quality and the number available which in turn has
resulted into congested homes and community and the resultant of this is the
ever increasing pressure on the infrastructural facilities which will rapidly
deteriorate.
The situation in the rural area is even worse where the quality of
housing is very poor and very low in quantity. Infrastructure like power,
roads, water, drainage and every other constituent of housing is readily
unavailable.
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In Nigeria today, over 7 out of every 10 people live below the
minimum poverty level and 9 of every 10 are in the low income group
therefore these people cannot provide housing for themselves; they then are
rendered homeless or live in poor housing.
The government had in place various policies as regarding housing
delivery to the public but poor implementation has made it impossible to
meet up with the 12-14 million housing units needed ( Balogun, 2007 ).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It has been observed that majority of the people are living in poor housing
or totally homeless even in urban centre to talk of the rural areas where the
housing there is generally poor and very low in quantity despite all
governmental policies to provide housing to the public.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this research is to find out the problems hindering the delivery of
housing in Nigeria, its effects and profer solutions.
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OBJECTIVES
-To identify problem hindering housing delivery
-To the different housing policies analyzed
-To itemize the effect of the problems inadequate housing delivery
-To proffer solutions to these problems
1.4RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data used for the purpose of this research is gotten from journals, books,
past project works, analytical discussion with estate surveyors and valuers
and seminar papers.
1.5SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
The limitations encountered while this research was time constraint,
withholding of information for security reasons and the usual Nigerian factor
of bribery before getting information.
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2.0LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.1 WHAT IS A HOUSE
The oxford advanced dictionary defines house as “a building made for
people to live in usually for one family or a family and lodgers {guest}
{Hornby et al 1984}. Technically, a house can be defined as a building or
structural edifice comprising of walls with foundation, floors, roofs e.t.c. in
which man lives thereby sheltering himself from the harsh effects of
weather, wild animals and the element.
Houses are for different uses but the most common ones are,
i residential ii commercial iii industrial iv institutional v recreational
A house is basically built on a piece of land commonly known as a
plot. With respect to size of the plot and the planning regulations of the area
the building is located, houses generally have spaces around them and this
spaces include (I) set backs (ii) space around the building (iii) parking lot
(iv) flower gardens and (v) undeveloped parcels of land.
Most of these spaces are usually utilized as green belts or area flower garden
or buffer belts shielding noise from one house to the other.
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The most common type of houses are (i). bungalow (ii). Storey-houses (iii)
Block of flats (iv) multi-storey houses (v) multi-tenement houses
(vi) mud houses (vi) terraced houses.
2.1.2 WHAT IS HOUSING
Housing is a word that is common to many societies but most widely
misunderstood especially its technical definition or meaning. Housing is
therefore viewed not only is a matter of shelter together with its supporting
infrastructures but more comprehensively as an evolutionary and
participating process is a complex system of interactions between
institutions and residents which give shape to human settlements.
Breaking it down Housing comprises more than four walls and a roof, it also
includes supporting infrastructure such as water supply, electric power
roads, shopping facilities, recreational facilities, a good and enabling
environment. Further more, institutions such as the housing corporations,
mortgage financial institutions, developers, estate agents, buyers and sellers
all make up the housing industry.
Housing affects all individual in any society including the homeless and the
destitute. Housing can also be described as accommodation with all the
necessary ancillary services with it.
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2.1.2.1 IMPORTANCE OF HOUSING
The importance of housing to man can never be over emphasized but a few
of the importance of housing will be discussed under the following headings,
I. Provision of shelter / accommodation : the provision of shelter goes
beyond the provision of a place for man to rest his head, it goes as far
as provision of safety and security from sunshine, rain and other harsh
weather condition. Further more, it protects man wild animals and
their attacks.
II. Investment which yields a flow of income : one of the major reasons
why people build houses is to generate income and even make profit
from the house when constructed. As a result of this, they plunge into
construction of houses which are let out to tenants who in turn pay rents
monthly, annually or otherwise as agreed with the landlord. For
example a man who owns a block of ten flats with a monthly rent of
#6,000 monthly per flat, such man will be making precisely #60,000
monthly as rent or #720,000 annually. This is indeed real flow of
income.
III. Source of social prestige : in some communities one of the yardstick
of assessing an individual’s achievement is whether he has built a house
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of his own or not. Any individual who has not attained this status may
not be taken serious within this society of people; this is because
anyone who owns a house of his own is conferred some social prestige
to belong to the class of landlords.
IV. Provision of employment : the construction of a houses provides
employment for several categories of people whether professionals or
artisans. Right from the purchase of the land; the land surveyor is
employed to provide the survey plan, then the architect is employed to
design the structure; the town planner approves the building drawing;
the quantity surveyor provides the bill of quantities and then the builder
builds the house. At the completion of the project, the estate surveyor
takes over the building to let it out to the would be tenants. During the
construction process, artisans like bricklayer, iron benders, carpenter,
plumbers, electrician, e.t.c. are gainfully employed.
V. Provides collateral security for loan : all around the world one of the
lending terms for loan taking in banks is the provision of collateral
security to the loan amount desired. One of the reasons why the house
meet up this security is because it has a high value when ever it is
offered for sale. Also, a house is durable, static, appreciates in value
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over time, capable of generating income and always in high demand,
therefore ownership of a house automatically provides the owner a form
of collateral security anytime he desire to apply for a loan.
VI. Durable good which can be inherited : a house is a durable good
which can last up to 100 years which means that housing can be
transferred from one person to another such as from father to son as a
sort of inheritance.
VII. Housing contributes to a physical development : the building and
their accompanying infrastructure is one single factor that contributes
largely to the development of town and cities. There are no settlement
without houses or buildings. There cannot be meaningful physical
development in any place without the construction of houses and roads.
Apart from the aesthetic of beauty of housing estates, they constitute a
significant percentage of physical development of such cities.
2.1.3 HOUSING NEEDS
A need is a requirement or something felt to be necessary. It also connotes a
want or lack in which case when there is a need for something, it implies
that, that thing is in lack and therefore wanted. It can also mean something
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that is very necessary, very much required in order to fill up some gap or
want.
Applying this idea of need to housing, we can explain housing need to mean
the minimum shelter or accommodation required to meet the basic minimum
requirement of a family or an individual.
Viewed on a general sense, housing needs relate to standards of
accommodation, deemed acceptable by society. Housing need is fairly
difficult to measure precisely due to the fact that the range and degree of
needs varies considerably. However, a minimum standard of housing is
necessary for a household to meet its physiological and psychological
requirements can be taken as Housing needs.
Many people in Nigeria are homeless including destitute who roam about the
street of urban centers and sleep in the markets and fly over bridges at nights
in cities such as Lagos. Such phenomenon readily exposes the inadequacies
of housing accommodation hence, more housing is needed. It is only a good
estimation of housing need in a given society that can lead to a lasting
solution of housing delivery.
2.1.4 HOUSING MARKET
A housing market is a market where housing goods and service are sold and
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bought by virtue of their being demanded and supplied.
Housing market may not necessarily be public buildings or open spaces
like common market. Nevertheless, housing markets are dotted allover a
nations landscape. It is like a system or an industry. Those who trade in the
housing markets know where and how to locate themselves in order to buy
and sell housing goods and services.
Rapkin et al {1982} described a housing market area as the physical area in
which all dwelling units are linked together in a chain of substitution,
where each can be considered as a substitute of the other.
Thus by this definition, we can identify several housing markets in Nigeria.
2.1.5 HOUSING QUALITY
Housing quality describes the state, nature or standard of housing with
respect to acceptable standards. Thus a good quality housing implies a level
of housing which has no less than the minimum of factors of which the most
important is income.
The level of income is one of crucial factors that determine the type and
quality of housing a household obtains in any given market. This
observation is on the part of the consumer of the housing good and services
and it is true of the Nigerian housing market which is operated essentially on
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the principles of free market enterprise.2.1.6 HOUSING FINANCE
Housing finance literally means finance for housing or real estate
development. However, it means more than that, it also means or includes
the source of the finance, the management of the finance and all various
operations on the source, management, procurement and utilization as well
as repayment of such finance. Housing finance equally means the same thing
as mortgage finance except that while housing finance is a general term en-
compassing all the transactions in the housing market, mortgage finance can
be applied to single or individual housing financial transaction.
2.1.6.1 SOURCES OF HOUSING FINANCE
There are two (2) major sources of housing finance which are the public and
private sources. This is shown below in the diagram.
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FIG. 1: Illustrating the various types and sub-types of housing finance sources
Breaking this diagram down there are some housing finance sources that
falls into these groups.
(a). public sources
i. Federal Government Staff Loan Scheme
ii. Federal Mortgage Bank
iii. Federal Housing Authority
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HOUSING FINANCE
PUBLIC PRIVATE
INFORMALFORMAL
iv. State Government Staff Housing Loan Scheme
v. State Government Housing\ Property Development Corporations
vi. State Governments Home Ownership Companies.
vii. State Government Mortgage Banks
viii. Local Government Staff Housing Loan Scheme
ix. National Provident Fund
x. State Savings and Loan Scheme
(b). private sources. These can be sub divided into 2 viz private formal and
private informal.
1. private formal sources
i. Primary Mortgage Banks
ii. Commercial Banks
iii. Merchant Banks
iv. Development Banks
v. Financial and Investment Companies
vi. Insurance Companies
vii. Trust Funds
viii. Co-operative and Thrift societies
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2. private informal sources
i. Esusu system
ii. Thrift system
iii. Co-operatives
iv. Friends
v. Family\ relatives
vi. Personal savings
vii. Money lenders
viii. Other sources
2.1.7 HOUSING POLICIES AND PROGRAM
Housing policy is written document which is usually comprises specific
objectives, strategies and programs aimed at solving the housing problems or
meeting with the ever-increasing housing needs and demands of a country.
{Ezenagu, 1990}
Housing policy should contain the government’s views, policy objectives,
strategies and programs all aimed at solving the housing problems of a
particular country.
Housing policies usually go together with housing programs. Housing
policies are like principles while housing programs are like practice. Again,
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it can said that housing policies are like theories while programs are like
practical; both of which are aimed at solving various housing problems
bedeviling a particular country or society.
Below is a list of some housing programs initiated in Nigeria at one time or
the other.
i. The public \mass housing programs of the third national
development plan period (1975-1980).
ii. The public \mass housing program of the fourth national development plan period (1985-1985).
iii. The public housing program of the Lagos state government
during the defunct second republic (1978-1983) spearheaded
by Lateef Jakande.
iv. Lagos state housing program fronted by Lagos state
development program corporation ( L.S.D.P.C ) (1999-2007).
v. the new national housing policy 1991
Housing policies in Nigeria are aimed basically at 6 major objectives which
are to:
i. Facilitate provision of houses for Nigerians at affordable prices.
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ii. Ensure the constant supply of loans to build, buy improve their
residential houses.
iii. Provide incentives for capital market to invest in property
development.
iv. Encourage the development of specific programs for effectives
financing of housing developments, in particular low- cost
housing for low- income workers.
v. Provide policy control over the allocation of resource and funds
between the housing sector and other sectors of the economy.
vi. Provide long term loans to mortgage institutions for on-lending
to contributors to the fund
2.1.7.1 AN APPRAISAL OF SOME HOUSING POLICIES AND
HOUSING DELIVERY IN NIGERIA.
1. NATIONAL HOUSING POLICY OF 1991
The national housing policy of 1991{and its financial component-national
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housing fund} was in operation for over eight years. A review of its
implementation and performance did not show any remarkable influence in
housing delivery in the country. Between1992 and 1999 0nly #80million
was disbursed to180 contributors out of #3.738 billion collected from over
16,624,857 national housing fund contributors which makes up about 180
new dwellings. This makes the percentage of dwellings met up with about
0.01% {Arigbabola, 2000}.
2. NATIONAL HOUSING PROGRAMME {1994}
The national housing program launched by the then head of state General.
Sanni. Abacha on April 1994. it also took advantage of the national housing
fund because it was the off shoot of national housing policy of 1991.The
primary aim was to establish a permanent housing delivery system which
should be self sustaining under a revolving fund arrangement. The target
figure was 121,000 housing units to be distributed throughout the states of
the federation. Available statistics shows that only 1,367 units were
completed and another 17,792units are under construction. This only
accounts for 15% of the project target.
2.2. PROBLEMS AFFECTING HOUSING DELIVERY IN NIGERIA
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The problems facing the supply of housing in Nigeria as identified by this
research are as follows:
i. Difficulty in securing land and where possible at high prices
ii. High cost of labour , building materials leading to high cost
building construction cost.
iii. Lack of mortgage finance and where available with difficult lending
terms and conditions {such as availability of collateral securities and
high interest rates} to the exclusion of low income people.
iv. Our crowding, high room occupancy rates leading to over use\ over
stretching of existing facilities with in turn often break down.
v. High housing rents per unit leading to occupants spending more than
the recommended rate 20% of their monthly income on housing. Also,
many land lords these days demand up to 2years rent in advance which
is not easy to come by.
vi. Acute shortage of housing accommodation which probably would
contribute to high rents and overcrowding.
vii. The growth and development of slums especially by the first migrants
as a result of acute quantitative shortage of housing. The slums and
squatter settlements have created very unsightly conditions , urban
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blight with environmental deterioration and degradation and can
even lead to disease or epidemic.
viii. High cost of housing designs and professional fees and the building
design in some cases do not meet the socio-cultural need of the
people. Also , there is high cost of obtaining development permit
from town planning authorities.
ix. Inadequate provision of infrastructural facilities such as good roads,
pipe-borne water {supplies}, power supply {electricity}, drainage
system, refuse disposal systems e.t.c . Power supply in Nigeria today
is grossly inadequate as most resident enjoy electric power less than
10% of the time on the average in most urban centers yet they pay bills
as if they enjoyed 100% supply of power.
x. Power transportation services together with distance to place of work,
schools, shop{for shopping} e.t.c. equally contribute to the existing
housing problem, especially if the transportation cost are high or
places of schooling or employment location are far.
xi. Rural housing problem, students housing problems, urban filth and
squalor, poor sanitation services, unwholesome and unhealthy
environment.
2.2 POSSIBLE PRACTICALSOLUTIONS TO HOUSING
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DELIVERY PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA.
Below is listed some suggestions as practical solutions to some of
Nigeria’s housing delivery problems. The government should;
I. Ensure adequate provision of site and services scheme for
massive housing provision for all its employees.\
II. Ensure the effective mobilization of mortgage finance so as to
make same easily accessible to all its staff.
III. Pursue vigorously a staff housing loan scheme such that all
their staff can benefit at below market interest rates. Monthly
deduction can be made from staff’s only monthly salary so as
to recover both the principal and the interest. By so doing,
homeownership as a policy would then be pursued at various
government levels.
IV. The land use decree of 1978 should be positively reviewed to
make land acquisition to all and sundry much easier.
V. Government can also pursue rent control measures that will be
practicable and result oriented so as to effectively control the
problem of high rents.
VI. Urban renewal measures, programs and projects should also be
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given adequate attention by the various government of the
federation. This is with a view to eliminating the problems of
poor environmental sanitation, urban blight and squallor and
unsanitary conditions.
VII. Government should pursue a dynamic mortgage finance\ credit
facilities policy such that such finances would be within reach
of low income people, at very moderate lending terms
including below market interest rate.
VIII. Government can build model housing estates for the low
income people where they can buy houses of their own at very
liberal conditions.
IX. Government should pursue an aggressive homeownership
policy with very good home ownership programs to back it up.
X. Other positive measures, policies\programs that can
significantly contribute to solving the numerous housing
problems of this country.
XI. The federal government should as a matter of policy set aside a
reasonable percentage of the country’s gross national product
or gross domestic product or its annual budget for housing.
This will ensure a steady supply of funds and will boost the
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housing sector.
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3.0 CONCLUSION
The need for housing in Nigeria is enormous. This section reviewed the
conceptual issues underpinning the delivery of housing. The various public
interventions in housing delivery in policies have been examined.
This term paper also identified and have discussed the various problems that
has bedeviled the provision of housing in Nigeria, the various policies the
government put in place to counter this problems, the short comings of these
policies and suggested some possible practical solution to these problems.
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REFERENCES
Hornby A. S. ( 1984 ) “ Oxford Advanced learners dictionary” Oxford University press
Ezenagu V.C. ( 2000 ) “ Fundamentals of housing” Living- Stone Publishers
Arigbabola A. ( 2000 ) “ Conceptual issues in Housing and Housing provision” Unpublished.
Balogun M. O. ( 2007) “ The built environment – innovation policy and sustainable housing development in Nigeria.” Builder Focus 2007
Ezenagu V. C. ( 1998 ) “ Concepts of housing” Unpublished
Omange G. N. ( 2001 ) “Government involvement in housing” Unpublished
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