The Land Use Act and the Nigerian Housing Sector

The article discusses the Land Use Act and the and how it has affected developments in the Nigerian housing sector. Prior to the Land Use Act, all the existing tenure systems encouraged land holding without an obligation to develop them, fragmentation and uncoordinated alienation, hoarding speculatively for value appreciation and without precise documentation. Consequently, the Land Use Act was enacted to: make land easily accessible to all Nigerians; prevent speculative purchases of communal land; streamline and simplify the management and ownership of land; make land available to government at all levels for development; provide the system of government administration of rights that will improve tenure security. The article highlights provisions of the Land Use Act and then examined the state of housing in Nigeria with reference to: rates of housing provision; occupancy ratio; housing price to income ratio; rent to income ratio; general housing quality and adequacy; housing price to income ratio; rent to income ratio; general housing quality and adequacy; and ubiquity of completed unoccupied homes. The impact of the provisions of the land use act on housing in Nigeria and government intervention in the housing process are also discussed. Some of the interventions include: direct housing supply; civil servant housing schemes; direct housing supply to the larger society; the National Housing Policy; strengthening and sustenance of the federal ministry in charge of housing; strengthening of organisations responsible for minimum performance standards; restructuring and capitalisation of finance bodies. government housing interventions include: Site And Services Scheme; Mass Housing Programme; and the Land Swap Programme. The articles recommendations include: provision of masterplans; structure plans for smaller towns and villages; review of plot sizes; evolutionary low-cost housing shells; alternative building materials; review of the land use act; need to shift interest from land ownership to access to housing; infrastructure development; and development of agencies’ information system and networking.