Gentrification-related buyouts and sustainable public low-income housing delivery in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

The dynamics of neo-liberalised housing market skew distribution against low-income earners who have to be assisted with varying degrees of subsidies for equity. In Nigeria, this results in building public housing estates for low-Income earners. This group form the bulk of the society, running the wheels of economic and productive processes in any urbanisation. As an indicator of the success of such subsidy regime, this study explored the extent to which the targeted poor had permanently benefited, taking Surulere Rehousing Estate (Scheme I) in Lagos, Nigeria as case study being typical of low-income Estates in Lagos. The study explored both primary and secondary data sources. A sample of 251 was systematically taken from the estate’s household population of 1,356 for service of structured questionnaire. The questions centred on identified variables of gentrification and related buyouts. The data were processed with SPSS version 20.0 with the outcome in descriptive statistics. The study detected 53.4% buyout rate aside from 11.2% rental cases, especially because of locational advantages including central accessibility of the estate to most parts of Lagos City-State. Most historic low-income allottees, assisted with subsidy had largely yielded ownership and possession to other higher socio-economic class. These confirm that the initial subsidy had largely ended up in the wrong pockets of a class which could ordinarily afford housing without it. The study has highlighted the possible futility and therefore, non-sustainability of public policy efforts at subsidising low-income housing in its current form, in Lagos Nigeria. Administrative, legal and possible taxation measures were proffered for sustainable subsidy practice in future projects.

Keywords

• Gentrification, housing buyouts, housing market, low-income housing, public housing.