An Evaluation of Rental Housing Affordability by Staff of Tertiary Institutions in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

There has been a serious threat to rental accommodation in the urban areas especially to certain grade of workers in the tertiary institutions, whose income in most cases are based on their salaries. The ever increasing cost of rental accommodation has nevertheless forced this group of workers to spend greater part of their income in search of adequate accommodation. The paper is an evaluation of adequate rental housing affordability by workers in relation to their income levels and other household needs, using the staff of tertiary institutions in Owerri, Imo State of Nigeria. The research also tried to find out the variables that affect the choice of rents and thus rate them according to their level of significance. Data were drawn from 01-09 salary grade levels comprising of both academic and non-academic staff of the five tertiary institutions in Owerri. 250 samples were selected using stratified random sampling techniques, same number of questionnaires was distributed, and 210 of the questionnaires were returned. Out of that, 191 questionnaires were considered valid, while the remaining was invalid. Tables and Percentages were used to analyze most of the data, while Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) software package was used to run a multiple regression. In the analysis, actual rent was the dependent variable while income, family size and other household expenditure were the independent variables. As a result the following estimated equation was developed Y (Affordable rent) = 75.527 + (0.05037 income) + (8.578 family size) + (0.01254 other household expenditure). The study revealed that three variables constitute 41% of the total variables that influence adequate rental affordability. The result of combined variables shows that f cal = 43.377 as against f tab of 1.20 which explains that the three variable are important as determinants. The result of t cal (testing the significance of the individual variables) reveals that income ranks the highest determinant; family size becomes the next while other expenditures were not so significant. The paper recommended an introduction of staff housing scheme especially for the lower income group, to alleviate the cost of housing and transportation.