Residents’ Socio-Economic Characteristics as Drivers of Housetypes in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

The function of housing is first and foremost to provide houses to families and other households, housing is therefore an important urban survival strategy. And this has made socio-economic status of family or individual to always play an important role in the choice of housing especially in urban centres. In this study a sample of 400 houses emerged from the survey of houses conducted from the pre-colonial, colonial and sub- urban residential areas of Ogbomoso. The study examined the social, economic, demographic characteristics of the residents in the housetypes as drivers of these housetypes in Ogbomoso, Nigeria. The study revealed that 40.3% of the sample were family houses, where residents were of multiple ownership status and who by reason of their kith and kin relationship did not pay rents and they belonged to the low-income category. 34.3% of the sample were rooming houses where residents also belonged to the low-income category and majority were renters in the house. The study concluded that family and rooming houses were predominant in Ogbomoso. The study corroborated the fact that poverty is the central and dominant problems of the poor in developing country, and their low earning power manifests in a variety of ways especially in lack of sufficient funds to procure housing, and as a results the rental housing sector has been and will continue to be the major provider of the bulk of housing for the low income households.