Tenants' willingness to pay for better housing in targeted core area neighbourhoods in Akure, Nigeria

The poor level of habitability, coupled with the high level of dilapidation of dwelling units in the core areas of Nigerian towns, have now reached a crisis level. Large-scale urban renewal schemes have failed, for various reasons, to produce wholesome and salubrious living environments. Various options that aim at targeting individual core area houses for re-development have been put forward by researchers. The question, however, is whether tenants are really prepared to pay for such housing improvement. This study reports the level of tenants' willingness to pay for better housing in the core-area neighbourhoods in Akure, Nigeria. Fifty respondents living in targeted housing units were randomly selected from each of the three core-area residential neighbourhoods in Akure for the study, giving rise to a sample frame of 150. The study employed the linear and log-linear regression modelling techniques and discovered that economic empowerment (represented by two surrogates-income of household heads and the number of income earning workers in the family) was a crucial factor affecting tenants' willingness to pay for better housing. Recommendations were advanced based on the findings of the research. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.