Tenure Of Residents As A Determinant Of Maintenance Conditions Of Residential Buildings In Housing Development Corporation Estates In Enugu Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Building maintenance is the effort made to restore the status of a building to its original use or for a new function. Occupied residential buildings, in public housing estates in Nigeria have been found to lack adequate maintenance attention from the facility providers. Also, this state of affairs has been associated with socioeconomic characteristics of residents. This study therefore sought to investigate the tenure status of the residents and its relationship with the maintenance conditions of residential buildings in Enugu State Housing Development Corporation (ESHDC) estates in Enugu metropolis with a view to developing improved maintenance guidelines for public residential building design. Survey design method was applied and it focused on four of ESHDC housing estates. A multistage stratified random sampling method was adopted in the selection of the study sample. Point Biserial Correlation analysis was used tool to test the relationship between the variables. With p<0.5, the study found significant correlation between the two i.e. that tenure status of residents influences maintenance conditions of the buildings within the study population. The policy implication of these findings were that for improved building maintenance condition, efforts should be made to encourage long/permanent tenures by residents of the estates as this would likely lead to higher commitment to maintenance.