ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF HOUSING QUALITY ON RESIDENTIAL OCCUPANCY DURATION IN MINNA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the effect of housing quality attributes on residential occupancy duration in Minna to determine the amount of variation in occupancy duration among the tenants that is due to quality of housing attributes. The study administered 861 questionnaires across the three selected areas (F-layout, Tunga and Sabon Gari) using simple random sampling techniques and 705 retrieved questionnaires were analysed for the study. The study analysed responses using both descriptive and inferential methods of data analysis. The descriptive method featured mean, to determine the average quality condition of housing attributes and mean of occupancy duration. The inferential method featured Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Correlation and Regression analysis. The use of ANOVA was to determine the significant variation in occupancy duration across the study area, the correlation was used to test hypothesis of non-correlation between housing quality and occupancy duration. Regression analysis was used to determine the effects of housing quality on occupancy duration. The results revealed that the quality index of housing attributes in F-layout and Tunga at .0758 and 0.685 respectively was found to be better than Sabongari at 0.502. The average occupancy duration across the study area revealed that Sabongari with 11 years 8 months (11.8) was higher than F-layout and Tunga at 9 years 2 months (9.2) and 8 years 4 months (8.4) despite poor quality index of housing attributes. The result of correlation revealed that there was a relationship between the quality of housing attributes and occupancy duration, the result of regression showed that 60.1% variation in occupancy duration across the study areas was explained by the quality of housing attributes. The study concluded that housing quality attributes had a predictive power of change in occupancy duration in the study area.