Impact of Urbanisation on the Housing Rent in the Lokoja Metropolis, Kogi State, Nigeria
Odaudu, Ugbede Sunday
Department of Architecture
Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil, Nigeria
Email: arcodauduugbede@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Increase of Housing rent is a problem in Nigeria due to urbanisation and despite the Federal Government interventions on housing provisions, Nigeria’s housing problems still remain intractable. This has led to research to be carried out on the impact of urbanisation on the housing rent in the Lokoja metropolis of Kogi State of Nigeria with the aim of assessing how the housing rent has been increasing from 1991 to 2017 in the Lokoja metropolis, in order to generate a solution that can reduce housing deficit in Nigeria. The unknown population of the study area in the following years: 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2009, 2012, 2015 together with 2018 and 2021 (the projected years) were calculated using Census (1991) unified formula [ Pt = Po ] for projecting the population of any part of Nigeria and the unknown population of the study area for the selected years were known. Then, oral interviews were conducted with inhabitants of the study area that are owners of 2-bedroom bungalow or residential buildings that contain a 2-bedroom flat. One owner of a 2-bedroom bungalow or a building that contains a 2- bedroom flat represents one inhabitant. The different amounts of the housing rent that tenants have been paying from 1991 till date (2017) were known from 100 owners of a 2-bedroom bungalow or building that contains 2-bedroom flat by using systematic random sampling method, which made it possible to calculate the average housing rent per the selected years. Then, the population of the Lokoja metropolis was compared with the average housing rent within a particular selected years starting from 1991 throughout the selected years to the projected years (2018 and 2021), in order to know how the housing rent has been increasing over the years and how will this increase be in future. The results showed a rapid increase of housing rent and suggested that, the government of Nigeria and the private developers should emphasis on the construction of more houses, since there is an urbanisation that led to a great need for housing magnitude in the study area.
Key Words: Urbanisation, Housing, Impact, Increasing, Rent.
