Analysis of Trends in Housing Construction Cost in Nigeria from 2000 - 2009

Abstract

The upward trends in housing construction costs have been a major issue in the economy as a whole. The research uses typical 3 - bedroom bungalow in Lagos to analyze the trends in housing construction cost from 2000 to 2009. The basic question for this research is whether the inflation in housing construction costs between 2000 and 2009 is statistically significant. The index number and one sample t test were used to analyze the data. The findings show that costs maintained upward trends throughout the study period. The analysis shows that between 2000 and 2009, the average annual inflation in costs and inflation were significant at 11.27% and 268.88% respectively. The incessant increase in the cost of housing construction has contributed to shortage in housing supply leading to high cost of urban housing accommodation, construction estimates losing usefulness within short periods, difficulty in forecasting and planning and frequent contract price variations, which can lead to abandonment of projects. The recommendation is that government should execute policies to lower the inflation rates so that prices in the cost of housing materials would come down. Government should also provide public housing and appropriate infrastructure for the masses.