Private Sector Participation in Urban Housing Supply in Calabar, Nigeria
D. D. Eni, Tpl Peter K. Danson

Abstract
The problems that prompted this study on private sector participation in urban housing supply include shortage in housing units, overcrowding, high rents, delay in plan approvals, substandard housing and squalid residential environments. The objectives were to assess the contribution of the private sector in housing delivery in Calabar, among others. The hypothesis tested was, the critical determinants of the supply of housing in Calabar are the rents of houses, cost of building construction, and the cost of land. Data collected were on the supply of houses between 1991 and 2010, cost of building materials and the cost of a plot of land in the study area. The systematic sampling method was adopted while the multiple regression technique was used to test the hypothesis. The results show that the actual critical factors that affect private sector supply of housing in Calabar are the cost of housing production, the cost of land, housing rents, and the per capita income of urban residents. Based on the foregoing, a number of recommendations were made among which are: subsidization of the cost of building plots, the delays in plan approvals should be checked, government should increase its participation in the housing sector, the control in the price of houses as well as rents, and the formation of housing co-operative societies to enable more urban residents have financial resources to own their own houses.

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