Housing deficiencies in Lagos State Nigeria: the need for an affordable approach towards strategic delivery

In Nigeria, the government's housing policies over the years have proven unsuccessful. The deep housing crisis, coupled with the researcher's over two-decade-long observations and participation in housing development in Lagos, Nigeria, informed this study. The study assesses the significance of affordable housing policies with a view to developing a framework for strategic housing delivery for low and middle-income earners (LMIEs). Theoretically, institutional and resource dependence theories underpin this study. Leaning towards positivist and interpretivist viewpoints, a concurrent nested mixed-methods design was employed.

With a sample size of 1326, data was collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and selected case studies. Findings revealed five critical success factors (CSFs), namely: good governance, land issues, financial facilities, government procurement, and institutions. It highlighted the need for a tool to redirect current practice to improve housing delivery for LMIEs in Lagos, Nigeria. A proposed framework identifying land trust banks, local development plans, and tailored financing was developed for policy redirection in practice and the strategic delivery of affordable housing. As a result, it contributes to the body of theory relating to sustainable housing delivery for LMIEs in Nigeria.

The implication for professional practice is that housing industry practitioners can rely on the proposed tool to select the appropriate CSF combinations as well as find assistance from its priorities to select the best possible combinations for sustainable housing delivery. The study concludes that local government engagement, state government funding, strong institutions, etc. are critical for the strategic delivery of affordable housing for LMIEs in Nigeria.