ASSESSMENT OF PRIVATE HOUSING ESTATE DEVELOPEMENT AND COMPLIANCE WITH PLANNING STANDARDS IN ABUJA MUNICIPAL AREA COUNCIL

Abstract

This study examines the implementation of planning standard of housing estates development in FCT, Abuja, with the view to establish the contribution of private’s developers to housing delivery. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the residents’ perception of the quality of the facilities provided in the estates, assess the levels of conformity to local plans and building regulations by private developers, determine the challenges influencing the performance of the private housing developers and evaluate the contribution of the private housing developers in provision of housing in the study area. The research instruments include questionnaire administration and interview. A total of four hundred and thirteen (413) residents from the thirty-four (34) selected residential estates was randomly selected for the study. And thirteen (13) management staff from the selected were also selected purposively for the study. Inferential statistics such as mean value techniques were used to analyze data collected for the study. The result of the findings revealed that more than half of the estates were built through self-sponsored (personal saving) and Also 40.3 % in the selected estates are vacant. There was partial compliance in terms of the minimum setbacks to the road, the building height, floor area ratio and total land area coverage by the developers, respectively. Also, the challenges influencing the performance of the private housing developers’ excessive cost of construction and lack of secure access to land was ranked as the most important Challenge influencing the performance of the private housing developers. Among others the research recommends that the government should provide suitable policy for design policy that will be favorable to the developer and also make housing loan accessible to the masses