Neglected residential properties is rapidly increasing in many towns and cities of developed and developing nations of the world, and Nigeria is not an exception. In recent years, housing vacancy has become a major attribute of the housing market in Abuja, the capital seat of Nigeria, and other satellite towns like Gwagwalada. However, little is known about the causes of housing vacancy in Abuja, Nigeria, and Gwagwalada to be specific. Based on this premise, this study examined the factors responsible for neglected residential properties in eight residential neighbourhoods in Gwagwalada, Abuja. Descriptive research design approach was adopted for the study while quantitative data were gathered through field survey using observation schedule and checklist. As a result, 207 vacant houses were assessed while purposive sampling technique was used to identify the vacant houses in the respective neighbourhoods. Data collected were analysed using descriptive (frequency and percentage), and inferential (t-test) statistical method. The study established that 70.53% of vacant houses have been empty for at least a period of 6 months, 57.01% of the vacant houses were buildings above 15 years of age. physical housing condition of these buildings had at least one major underlining problem associated with it roof tops (85.99%), walling members (83.57%) and windows (51.21%). Finally, the lack of prepaid electric meter in the house (71.50%), lack of organised mode of refuse collection and disposal (71.01%), lack of portable water in the houses (64.73%), proximity to health care facilities (59.42%) as well as proximity to shopping facilities (55.55%) were found also to factors responsible for housing vacancy in the study area. The study concluded that, the high property value of residential structures and lack of adequate infrastructure is the primary driver of housing vacancy in Gwagwalada, Abuja. The study therefore recommends that housing tax should be legislated and implemented to discourage the inflation of rent by developers and estate agent.

Abstract

In the past, the analysis of order and error constants of block linear multistep methods are usually determined on the individual members of the block. In this project, we proposed the analysis of the schemes in block form as they appeared for implementation. Specifically, cases k= 2, 3, 4 and 5 for both Adams Moulton (implicit) and Adams Bashforth (explicit) were reformulated as continuous schemes to generate a number of sufficient schemes necessary to make the methods self-starting. The derivation was done through the continuous collocation technique using power series as basis function and the property of order and error constants is examined on the entire block of each step number considered. Numerical experiment was also conducted on the methods considered and it was observed that the accuracy of the methods increases as the step number increases. Furthermore, the Adams Moulton methods produced more accurate results than the corresponding Adams Bashforth methods.