LEVELS OF RESIDENTS' PARTICIPATION IN HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN AKURE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Residents’ participation has become a topical issue in housing research, and it has become necessary in order to enhance the level of users' satisfaction. Governments all over the world are embracing this approach to housing development to solve housing problems and to provide acceptable and affordable housing to its citizens. The success in using this approach shows that it has become necessary for the Nigerian housing environment, where it is yet to gain ground. This research therefore analyzed the levels of resident's participation in housing development in Akure, Nigeria with a view to determining residents’ housing satisfaction. A mixed method of survey research was used in selecting the respondents for this research. A cross sectional survey of 304 household heads in the transitional and peripheral zones of Akure was conducted. Data were collected through structured questionnaire, focus group discussions (FGDs) and observations. Data were collected from six randomly selected districts in the study area. The FGD was conducted in four randomly selected communities within the study area. The questionnaire data were analyzed using Single-Factor Descriptive Analysis, Mann Whitney, Spearman Rank Correlation, Mean Satisfaction Scoring (MSS), and Categorical Regression Analysis, while the FGD data were analyzed using content analysis. The study found significant relationship between the level of residents' participation and residential satisfaction. It shows that higher level of residents' participation in housing development is necessary to achieve higher level of residential satisfaction in Nigeria. It concluded that since non-involvement of residents led to unsatisfactory housing environments, there is the need for architects, government authorities, and housing policy makers to adopt residents' participation to achieve sustainable housing development. It recommended that there is the need to develop strategies for residents' participation in housing development in Nigeria by adopting the framework proposed in this research