Over the years, the urban land markets in Nigeria have been grappling with conflicts between the formal and informal institutions who have remained the dominant players. Despite the provision of the Land Use Act of 1978, which vested in the states, the power to hold and administer all lands within their territorial boundaries, interests are still being transferred informally. These transactions continue defying all risks associated with insecure tenure. The purpose of this study therefore, is to investigate the factors responsible for the choice of households' access to land through informal channels. Data was obtained through questionnaire from 362 land owners and analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis techniques. The results revealed that, households' preferences for informal access to residential land are influenced by socio-economic factors with 37.9% variance, inefficiency in the urban land administration with 21.2% and planning and development control issues with 17.7% variations respectively. Thus, the main conclusion of the study is that the predominant influence of these factors on the urban land market will continue to sustain the informality of land access in Minna. The study recommends the decentralisation of land administrative system and reduction in the planning standards to enhanced formal land access.