Emergence of Informal Housing: Implications for Development of Low-Cost Housing Delivery Strategies in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Abstract

Literature revealed that the emergence of informal housing has been largely viewed as problem and had described it as spontaneous, unplanned and uncoordinated emergent development. They are often carried out through self-help efforts without necessarily complying with the planning and building regulations or standards. Events have shown that government eviction have in turn helped to fuel its further growth, which later became permanent dwellings for the displaced residents. This suggests that, the emergence of informal low-cost housing is inevitable as long as the cites or urban centres manifest its economies at different scales with the concomitant effects of rapid rural –urban migration, economic survival reactions, prohibitive land cost, inaccessibility to affordable land, inability of the government to provide adequate and affordable housing. The paper tries to assess the implications of the emergence of informal housing on the development of low-cost housing delivery strategies in Imala/Elega/Bode-Olude area of Abeokuta, Nigeria. Purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were adopted in the selection of study area and dwelling units respectively. Data collection was from literature and structured questionnaires, where quantitative and qualitative information were extracted on the building type, location, attraction of participants and construction strategies adopted from the 384 stratified randomly selected respondents.  Data obtained were analysed and discussed with the use of group statistics, independent samples t-test analysis and correlation matrix analysis for the testing of related hypotheses in relation to the objectives and identified variables. Findings shows amongst others that, the development situations in the study area are not hopeless but can be made more decently, safe and healthily habitable without disrupting the informal housing market and hurting the housing need. The paper made recommendations and concludes that, with enabling intervention strategies, informal low-cost housing can be a viable and sustainable platform for increasing the housing supply, especially for the urban poor.