Sustainable Housing Affordability Construct and the Case of Nigerian Urban Housing Sector

Housing affordability concept and measurement is a recurring subject in architecture and planning literature. Research suggests that in planning for housing, architects and planners typically apply the normative (ratio and residual) measures to all variants of affordability stress. This is because housing affordability is typically assessed and conceptualized in economic terms. Hence, proffering intervention strategies which often fail to address the peculiar situations in their communities. Consequently, optimal measurement of housing affordability has remained a significant concern worldwide. In recent decades, methodological development and researches (conceptual refinements) on housing affordability measurement approaches (HAMA) have accelerated and continue to grow exponentially. Despite this intensive global development, very few attempts have been made to present the theoretical bases and track the developmental trends of these approaches. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that the concept of housing affordability is evolving and that its concerns transcend mere housing cost and its relationship to income; to broader issues of social wellbeing and sustainability. It is an unusual approach to assess housing affordability by incorporating sustainability. Sustainable housing affordability (SHA) construct has been advocated by researchers to address the exponentially growing affordability concerns. New studies on this subject are increasingly recognizing the need for a broader and more holistic understanding of the criteria system representing SHA. Most key authors have embraced this evolution and view the change as positive, and have analyzed industry professionals, academics, housing providers as well as stakeholders’ perception along these lines. To the best of my knowledge, no study has surveyed the opinions of households on the criteria system representing SHA. Hence, it is not immediately clear if the views of households align with this. Therefore, this thesis aims at filling this literature gap by assessing the views of households on the criteria system representing SHA. In this regard, a holistic list of 81 potential sustainability performance criteria (SPC) were established by an extant systematic literature review. Regarding this, a questionnaire survey was premeditated to assess the opinion of households living in the 26 urban areas of Nigeria on the criticality of these SPC. Through the statistical analysis, 30 critical sustainability performance criteria (CSPC) were established. Based on this, a framework for achieving SHA in the study area was proposed. A comparative analysis shows that households have distinct and unique views on the criteria system when compared to the industry professionals' and stakeholders' opinions. Findings reveal that household views on these issues differ significantly across the six geopolitical regions of Nigeria, while no significant difference exists based on income group. This study posits that at present, the housing affordability concerns in Nigeria cannot be restrictedly defined by financial attributes. It reiterates the need for reconsideration and offers new insight, but not conclusive information on better ways to conceptualize and measure housing affordability. This thesis provides salient information to policymakers, industry professionals and stakeholders that could aid the sustainable development of housing projects that are deemed affordable. Keywords: Housing Affordability; Measurements Approaches; Methodological Weaknesses; Sustainability; Household Perception; Quantitative Analysis; Evidence Informed Planning; Planning for Housing; Nigeria.