Towards Sustainable Housing Supply in Developing Africa Cities

Abstract

The seemingly perennial challenge of housing deficit in Africa cities calls for the review of policies and initiatives in the housing sector. This paper attempts to evaluate housing provision for targeted categories of citizens, and the various targets of which have never been met in Nigeria. The specific objective is to identify the causes of failure at meeting with the set-target of the housing policies in Nigeria, in spite of the activities of real estate developers. The study adopts a qualitative method comprising content analysis of selected studies on housing and focus group discussion with 13 experts in the built environment who are also in the academia. Findings show that the operators of the housing policies do not often consider the needs of the different socio-cultural and socio-economics of the target-group. Similarly, the modus operandi of the real estate developers hardly guarantees access to adequate and affordable housing by the masses, especially by the urban poor. Rather, few rich and privileged politicians benefited from these policies. The paper advocates for policy reforms and inclusive governmental and professional intervention in support of regulations and the deployment of integrative informal housing and social housing as strategy towards addressing the challenges of housing deficit in most Africa cities, especially for the urban poor.