The study investigated housing Transformation and its impact on the neighbourhood in
two selected public low- income housing estates in Lagos State. The analysis of the
impact and extent of these Transformations on the houses and their attributes as well as
their general consequences for the neighbourhoods was carried out.
The general approach to this study was exploratory and descriptive, based on both
qualitative and quantitative research techniques because the qualitative enquiries helped
to explore the diversities in a situation or phenomenon while the extent or magnitude was
determined through the quantitative means. The survey method was employed using
questionnaires. The respondents were 614 residents of the housing estates, randomly
selected from a total of 2,870 residents in the two estates. In addition, in-depth
interviews were conducted as part of the qualitative data on 15 residents purposively
selected. The data collected were subjected to statistical analyses using frequencies,
percentages, cross tabulations, discriminant and factor analysis.
The results revealed that the Estates consisted of households with diverse social
and economic backgrounds living together. This meant that over time, the estates had
become heterogeneous in composition as against the original residents who were lowincome
earners. The result also showed that 75.7% of the total residents had transformed
their houses and an average of 89% of the open spaces allocated to each housing unit had
been built up there-by reducing the air circulation space around the housing units. The
nature of transformation observed were mainly through the addition of more bedrooms
either for private or commercial purposes, enlargement of some domestic interior spaces
for convenience, conversion of existing dwelling spaces to shops and other forms of
business outfits and outright reconstruction of an entire building. The process of
transformation for most of the residents, as evident from the data, begins with the
addition of more bedrooms followed by erection of perimeter fences with the majority
sourcing for fund through personal savings.
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The result of discriminant analysis revealed that twelve variables differentiated
the residents who transformed from those who did not. The implication of this is that
these variables can be used to predict some issues concerning the residents within the
study areas. These variables included occupation of respondents (Wilk’s Lambda =
0.001, F (1, 145) = 22049.87; p<0.05); present household size (Wilk’s Lambda = 0.001, F (1,
144) = 21363.72; p<0.05); religion of respondents (Wilk’s Lambda = 0.00, F (1, 141) =
42127.91; p<0.05), and accessibility (Wilk’s Lambda = 0.03, F (1, 149) = 2622.80; p<0.05)
of the Estates to other parts of the city amongst others.
It was discovered that the forms of transformations prevalent in these LowIncome
housing Estates were mostly related to economic and social needs. The findings
showed that the drive to make financial gains through different means was the highest
motivator for the residents as huge amount of cash rewards are accrued from such efforts.
The nature of transformations that had taken place were such that had been dictated by
several factors including the types of housing, particularly the number of bedrooms and
size of some of the interior spaces that were made available to this group of people.
Measuring the residents' reaction to certain types of transformation which were
conspicuous in the study areas showed their acceptance level in spite of the services they
presently render to the residents which was quite low.The study concluded that the
housing estates had been transformed from homogeneous community to a heterogeneous
community and that the neighbourhood had become mixed even in relation to land use.