Exploring the Severity of Factors Influencing Sustainable Affordable Housing Choice: Evidence from Abuja, Nigeria

It is a shared global experience that a house which is already expensive will become even more costly. This experience is partly because housing supply has always failed to satisfy demand. In many developing countries, the issues of affordable housing supply center on shortage and poor distribution. Recent studies on this subject reveal that distribution-related problems can be addressed through choice reconciliations. Therefore, understanding how housing affordability problems affect housing choice enables a broader interpretation of the issue. Thus, critical in housing policy making and implementation, as well as towards sustainable development/delivery of affordable housing programs. In Nigeria, housing choice has never been investigated, neither has it been studied within the framework of sustainability. It is not a common strategy to incorporate sustainability into the concept of affordable housing choice. However, integrating sustainability into the concept of affordable housing choice allows for the introduction of wide-ranging and broader criteria such as environmental and social factors, which are routinely neglected in housing choice literature. Therefore, this study aims at filling this literature gap by identifying the determinants of sustainable affordable housing choice (SAHC) in the study area. The purpose is to establish the severity of the identified factors based on respondents’ perception and discuss the agreement levels amongst the three respondent groups. Regarding this, a comprehensive list of 43 different factors contributing to SAHC were determined through a systematic literature review. Based on which a survey of 83 affordable housing applicants, 102 and 69 residents of affordable housing estate and shantytown respectively, was performed. Through statistical analysis, results reveal that the factors affecting SAHC cuts across economic, social and environmental dimensions. Also, there is an agreement (correlation) by each group and the overall ranking of all participants. The tests confidence level for all inferential statistics was 95%, which implies 0.05 level of significance. These figures indicate that the data were obtained from the same population and points to the relatedness of factors identified. Using principal component analysis (PCA), the 43 different factors were narrowed down to seven. The study findings show that “Housing price in relation to income” and “rental price in relation to income” are the most severe factors with relatively high overall scoring, which is consistent with similar studies in this domain. However, it was uncovered that respondents placed high priorities on other non-economic factors like security (safety), housing location and building type. The study presents an interesting topic, usually unexplored in the field of decisions and public policy. It argues that at present, the housing affordability concerns and affordable housing choice determinants in the study area cannot be restrictedly defined in economic terms. Our findings build on previous studies and reiterate the need to consider a broader view towards affordable housing problem. It offers salient information to stakeholders and real estate companies, which could aid sustainable development/delivery of housing projects that are affordable.