Real estate development and use of land are prompted primarily by the products
and satisfaction that could be derived therefrom. It is a common knowledge that the Land
Use Act has since its inception, provided answer to the socio-economic problem of
making land readily available for desired objectives especially in the area of landed
property development which is retarded in Enugu. This study which adopted the survey
research approach, analysed the effects of the Land Use Act of 1978 on property
development as measured in terms of ease of accessibility, ease of acquisition and
security of title with a view to formulating a workable proposal for an improvement on
the existing land policy which will improve the rate of property development. Data were
sourced through primary and secondary sources, which included questionnaires,
interviews, and review of published and unpublished scholarly work. These data x-rayed
the opinion of various land operators on the effects of the Land Use Act on Property
Development in Enugu Urban. A sample size of 368 was selected from the study
population of 4,650 made up of 250 staff of Redan, 400 Registered Estate Surveyors and
4,000 Landlords. Three hundred and fifty (350) or 95% of the 368 questionnaires
randomly administered on the samples were retrieved. The data generated were analysed
in tables to answer the research questions formulated using frequencies and percentages.
Three hypotheses which tested the three major effects of Land Use Act namely; lack of
ease of accessibility to land, difficulty in land acquisition and lack of security of title to
land were tested using the Non parametric Binomial test of proportions and Chi-square
technique. The results of the test in which the X2
table value at 0.05? level of
significance, 2df and 3df confirmed the reality of insecurity of title to land, inaccessibility
and difficulty in land acquisition by the rejection of the Null Hypothesis. The study
finally recommended that the Land Use Act be retained but with amendments of some
sections, in order to accelerate the speed with which land is made available at reduced
fees.