Influence of Prices of Selected Building Materials on the Rate of Housing Development in Minna (2003 - 2012).

Abstract

This study focused on filling the wide gap between income and housing cost in Nigeria which has almost eliminated the low-income earners from the housing market. To solve this problem, this research studied the relationship between the prices of eight building materials (cement, gravel, sharp sand, reinforcement bar, emulsion, texcote & gloss paints and roofing sheet) and the rate of housing development with a view to suggesting strategies that will assist in the provision of housing to low-income earners by the government in Minna. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. It was established that the trend of the rate of housing development significantly differs from the ones observed for the building materials but the rate of housing development could roughly be estimated by employing the price of sharp sand and the price of texcote paint respectively because these materials correlated significantly and positively with rate of housing development. A major recommendation from the research findings was that policy makers should use the changes in the prices of sharp sand and texcote paint to infer the solution to the problem of annual decrease in the rate of housing development.