SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF RESPONDENTS AND HOUSING CHOICE IN OTTO-AWORI LOCAL COUNCIL DEVELOPMENT AREA, OJO, LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the factors influencing residents' choice of housing in the Otto-Awori Local Council Development Area to formulate strategies for sustainable housing development. The research design adopted was a survey design. The sampling frame emanated from the total housing units in Otto-Awori LCDA (14,995). The Kothari sample size formula was used to calculate the sample size, obtaining 191 respondents. The sampling procedure entailed the identification of roads in the LCDA and selecting the 78th house where the questionnaire was administered randomly in the recognized building to the household head. The successful completion of one hundred and seventy-three (173) questionnaires was used for analysis, corresponding to a response rate of 90.5%. Data were analyzed using frequency tables, and Spearman rank correlation. The study revealed that the majority of respondents (56.6%) were males. 34.7% of respondents are below 30 years. Housing characteristics revealed that the majority of the respondents (43.4%) lived in flats. The annual rent for most of the respondents was less than N100,000. Regarding housing characteristics and socio-economic characteristics, there was a weak negative correlation between the size of the room and marital status, with (p-value of 0.003 and r r-value of -0.225 at the 0.05 level of significance. At the 0.05 level of significance, the study revealed that ventilation (VT) weakly correlated with marital status (MAR), with (p-value of 0.009 and r r-value of 0.999**. Also, space and marital status were weakly correlated negatively (p-value 0.000 and r value -0.277**). The study concludes that the significant socio-economic predictors for housing choice are marital status. The primary factor predicting housing choice is ventilation. Therefore, marital status and ventilation should be considered in housing development and housing choice preferences.