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Modes of housing production in developing countries: the contemporary role of land, labour, and capital in Lagos, Nigeria

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Abstract

The strategies of participants in housing production, in developing countries, are diverse and not fully understood. Governments in most developing countries have not been able to, sufficiently, explore how the production factors: land, labour and capital, impact on housing production. As a result, many policies formulated by governments aimed at stimulating housing production are found to result in unintended outcomes: they do not always align with the way housing is actually created. This study uses the production factors to assess how motivations are shaped and different modes of housing production result. The aim is to gain an improved understanding of how housing developers, builders and government, impact modes of production. The method includes synthesis of past studies on factors of housing production in Lagos. In parallel, it also involves visits and interviews with some selected developers and agencies to allow a deeper engagement with their activities. This is in addition to direct observation and interviews undertaken through purposeful selection of some autonomous (on-site) builders. As an exploratory study, it observes that a better approach to land supply is significantly beneficial in shaping the modes and capacity of housing. The study helps understand the strategies of participants in housing production in developing countries, especially in Lagos. It recommends that efficient land supply to the autonomous on-site builders should be a focus for policy makers. This will contribute to the production of more housing thereby facilitating an improved production of present and future housing needs of the population.

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Notes

  1. These are individual developers or builders motivated to develop dwellings in the form of both asset formation and housing services for their exclusive use.

  2. These are people who invest in and develop the urban or suburban potentialities of real estate, especially by subdividing the land into lots. They might also be involved in the actual construction and sale of houses (organised sector of housing production). It is contextually synonymous with builder in most informal settlements that are predominantly autonomous self built in developing countries depending on the scale and motive of construction.

  3. Contractors are builders that are directly involved in the physical construction and the coordination of all the factors of housing construction.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the supports provided by the Australian Research Council through a linkage project on National Infrastructure for Managing Land Information (NIMLI) and with the collaboration of the industry partners: Land Victoria, Land and Property Management Authority, New South Wales, Landgate—Western Australia and PSMA. Also acknowledged are the constructive comments from members of CSDILA and the supports from the University of Lagos at the early stage of the research. However, the views presented are those of the authors and not of the project partners.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Muyiwa Agunbiade & Abbas Rajabifard

  2. The University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Rohan Bennett

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  1. Muyiwa Agunbiade
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  2. Abbas Rajabifard
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  3. Rohan Bennett
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Correspondence to Muyiwa Agunbiade.

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Agunbiade, M., Rajabifard, A. & Bennett, R. Modes of housing production in developing countries: the contemporary role of land, labour, and capital in Lagos, Nigeria. J Hous and the Built Environ 28, 363–379 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-012-9303-8

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