Housing is a basic human need and its liveability transcends beyond the perimeter of the housing unit. The quality of the living environment is important for an individual’s wellbeing. The factors that contribute to the inhabitants’ satisfaction in a living environment are essential inputs in monitoring the success of housing policies of the government. This paper measured the dimensions and attributes of the living environment of the public low income housing estates in Minna, Niger State. A questionnaire was administered to 400 household heads in the three selected housing estates based on stratified random sampling. 366 questionnaires were returned and the data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and factor analysis. Results showed that residents are satisfied with housing unit and economic vitality, but dissatisfied with neighbourhood facilities, and socialinteraction was lacking among the residents. Also, residents are apprehensive of their safety. This study recommends an immediate improvement of neighbourhood facilities in these housing estates.
There is a growing concern about city livability around the world and of particular concern is the aspects of the person-environment relationship which encompasses many characteristics suffice to make a place livable. Extant literature provides livability dimensions such as housing unit characteristics, neighborhood facilities, economic vitality and safety environment. These livability dimensions as well as their attributes found in the extant literature have been reported to have high reliability measurement level. Although, various methods have been applied to examine relationships among the variables however structural equation modeling (SEM) has been found more holistic as a modeling technique to understand and explain the relationships that may exist among variable measurements. Structural equation modeling simultaneously performs multivariate analysis including multiple regression, path and factor analysis in the cause-effect relationships between latent constructs. Therefore, this study investigates the key factors of livability of planned residential neighborhoods in Minna, Nigeria with the research objectives of – (a) to study the livability level of the selected residential neighborhoods, (b) to determine the dimensions and indicators which most influence the level of livability in the selected residential neighborhoods, and (c) to reliably test the efficacy of structural equation modeling (SEM) in the assessment of livability. The methodology adopted in this study includes- Data collection with the aid of structured questionnaire survey administered to the residents of the study area based on stratified random sampling. The data collected was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 and AMOS 22.0 software for structural equation modeling (a second-order factor). The study revealed that livability as a second-order factor is indicated by economic vitality, safety environment, neighborhood facilities and housing unit characteristics first-order factors. The result shows that economic vitality (income, mobility and mobility cost) most significantly measures neighborhood livability. Also, results of the model achieved good fit indices such as CFI of 0.907 and the RMSEA value of 0.096. Thus, SEM analyses in this study offer a methodological guide on the efficacy of CFA second-order factor.
Infrastructure serves as an indicator to make real estate investment flourish, build the platform for the real estate investment market to thrive, and also to boost returns on property investment. Despite availability of some infrastructure,the property investment market still plagued with less expected returns as a result of non-functionality of neighborhood infrastructure. The study focused on the appraisal of the trends in residential property investment returns between year 2009 to 2018, relative to infrastructure condition in the study area. Data were obtained from practising real estate firms and residents of selected neighborhoods using a structured questionnaire. The study adopted simple random sampling technique. Out of 2,228 questionnaires administered in the selected neighborhoods, in Ilorin, 664 were returned and valid for the analysis. Descriptive mean method of data analysis was employed, coefficient of variation and spearman’s rank-order correlation model was adopted to comparethe property investment return in the selected areas of Ilorin and to determine the infrastructure indexwith benchmark for the minimum acceptable standard condition. Also, Kendall coefficient of concordance was also used to test the relationship among the ranked factors. The result shows that Sabo-Oke and Fate property market of Ilorin performed better than Adewole Housing Estate and GRA (Government Reservation Area) based onrisk-return ratio analysis, of which Sabo-Oke and Fate revealed the most consistent property market returns while GRA and Adewole Housing Estate residential market showed high level market volatility due to risky nature of the market. Sabo-Oke and Fate markets showed a stable market at minimum risk ranges between 8%-36%. The infrastructure condition indices in GRA and Adewole Housing Estate is higher than ideal condition index (Benchmark), ranges between 82%-92% and 81%-94% when compared with the average international standard at 60%, while infrastructure conditions in Sabo-Oke and Fate found a bit below the average international standard condition. The study also found that the performance of residential property investment is magnificent in the area where there is a frequent market transaction with good and functional infrastructure, as it is discovered across the selected neighborhoods in Ilorin. The study concluded that infrastructure have weighty influence on residential property investment returns relative to functional infrastructure and that, residential property market performance hinges on functional infrastructure and it must be given extreme consideration when making a property investment decision.
Housing is a basic human need and its liveability transcends beyond the perimeter of the housing unit. The quality of the living environment is important for an individual’s wellbeing. The factors that contribute to the inhabitants’ satisfaction in a living environment are essential inputs in monitoring the success of housing policies of the government. This paper measured the dimensions and attributes of the living environment of the public low income housing estates in Minna, Niger State. A questionnaire was administered to 400 household heads in the three selected housing estates based on stratified random sampling. 366 questionnaires were returned and the data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and factor analysis. Results showed that residents are satisfied with housing unit and economic vitality, but dissatisfied with neighbourhood facilities, and socialinteraction was lacking among the residents. Also, residents are apprehensive of their safety. This study recommends an immediate improvement of neighbourhood facilities in these housing estates.
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