Long-Term Housing Finance Needs and Housing Development in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between long-term housing finance needs and housing development in Nigeria. This study is based on the argument that the supply of housing is a function of series of economic factors such as real house price, inflation rate and credit availability, exchange rate and GDP growth. Co-integration and error correction estimation techniques were used to determine long-run relationship and speed of adjustment from the disequilibrium to equilibrium respectively. The results reveal the existence of long-run relationship among the variables used in model. The short-run estimation shows that changes in the previous year of housing loan have a positive significant effect on the current value of housing finance. The result also reveals that changes in the previous two periods’ lag of mortgage bank deposits and income have positive and significant impact on housing finance in the short-run. All these suggest that policies to boost housing finance development in Nigeria would be fruitful in the long term. The study recommends that Nigeria government should give the necessary financial support to mortgage institutions in the country as this will help to strengthen their operational potentials and the huge housing deficit closed. There is also an urgent need for development partners and the private sector to join the government to tackle the crisis.