TITLE:
An Evaluation of Rental Housing Affordability by Staff of Tertiary Institutions in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Jovita N. Nnametu, Fidelis I. Emoh
KEYWORDS:
Rental Housing Affordability, Tertiary Institutions, Evaluation, Owerri, Nigeria
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.8 No.1,
January
9,
2020
ABSTRACT: There has been a serious threat to
rental accommodation in the urban areas especially to certain grade of workers
in the tertiary institutions, whose income in most cases are based on their salaries.
The ever increasing cost of rental accommodation has nevertheless forced this
group of workers to spend greater part of their income in search of adequate
accommodation. The paper is an evaluation of adequate rental housing
affordability by workers in relation to their income levels and other household needs, using the
staff of tertiary institutions in Owerri, Imo State of Nigeria. The research
also tried to find out the variables that affect the choice of rents and thus
rate them according to their level of significance. Data were drawn from 01-09
salary grade levels comprising of both academic and non-academic staff of the
five tertiary institutions in Owerri. 250 samples were selected using
stratified random sampling techniques, same number of questionnaires was distributed,
and 210 of the questionnaires were returned. Out of that, 191 questionnaires
were considered valid, while the remaining was invalid. Tables and Percentages
were used to analyze most of the data, while Statistical Program for Social
Sciences (SPSS) software package was used to run a multiple regression. In the
analysis, actual rent was the dependent variable while income, family size and
other household expenditure were the independent variables. As a result the
following estimated equation was developed Y (Affordable rent) = 75.527 +
(0.05037 income) + (8.578 family size) + (0.01254 other household expenditure).
The study revealed that three variables constitute 41% of the total variables
that influence adequate rental affordability. The result of combined variables
shows that fcal = 43.377 as against ftab of 1.20 which
explains that the three variable are important as determinants. The result of tcal (testing the significance of the individual variables) reveals that income ranks
the highest determinant; family size becomes the next while other expenditures
were not so significant. The paper recommended an introduction of staff housing
scheme especially for the lower income group, to alleviate the cost of housing
and transportation.