Examination Of The Effect Of Funding On Housing Delivery In, Owerri, Imo State

ABSTRACT

Housing is seen as one of the most important for the physical survival of man after the provision of food. It contributes to the physical and moral hearth of a nation and stimulates the social stability. The demand for accommodation (for man, his activities and services) with the rate of economic activities in Owerri led to investment in real estate. This investment called for the use of finance, and in the present period of economic recession, investment in real estate housing is beset with some problems. The acquisition, formation, raising, disbursement, utilization, repayment and recouping are all pressing problems to real estate housing financing. This dissertation aims among other things at assessment and identification of the problem faced by real estate developers/investors in financing real estate investment in Owerri and to show the potentiality of financing real estate housing which is a viable investment. In trying to identify these problems and probably make recommendation as to how to solve them, recourse is hard to the adoption of various techniques in the research, in the form of review of existing literature, interview, questionnaire as well as tables and charts. The fund for investing in real estate in Owerri can be derived through many sources like Mortgage institution and financial houses. The reluctance to invest in real estate housing stems from the problem of obtaining funds for real estate. Estate housing which boarded on investors inaccessibility to finance, shortage of finance as a result of economic situation, legal and administrative investments among others.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     INTRODUCTION

• GENERAL BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Following the creation of Imo state on February 1976, Owerri being the state capital and formally known for its serene nature, witnessed the influx of civil servants, and indigenous who were resident in other state were motivated to invest in real estate and contribute to the development of their new state.

One of the first problems encountered by the incoming indigenes was lack of finance to invest and carry out development for good living.

Consequently there was scarcity of residential accommodation. One starts to wonder if there are no real estate investors in Owerri who could build houses and let to some people. Though these problems were to some extent tackled by the then military administrator through the development of housing estate and also by some private investors who were able to erect block of flats, duplexes and tenement buildings.

About twenty years later, that is in 1996 precisely, Owerri, the capital of Imo State witness a remarkable change such that the economic basis of the state underwent a total metamorphosis from a purely administrative status to a mixture of public services and commercial/agricultural city but with the public service population maintaining a slight edge, this called for more investment by individuals, groups(S) and government in real estate and hence its financing. Therefore it is precisely for this reason that the researcher shall be looking into real estate financing/funding in Owerri.

Real estate financing/funding could be made for residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural and other special purposes. Experience has shown that financing in real estate often required considerable capital outlay and for every purchase of real estate and financing, a capital sum is given up in expectation that an income will be received over and above the capital sum (BEATON et, al 1997).

Financing/funding in estate housing involves huge monetary outlay and greater risk compared with other types of investment such as stock and shares and only in exceptional cases has the estate investors have all the fund needed to undertake investment in real estate housing delivery. It is therefore usually necessary for the risk and financial burden to be spread amongst of those parties best able and willing to bear them. Hence it becomes imperatives for proper funding and analysis of any investment in real estate, since housing delivery is still attractive from of investment and constitutes 85% of wealth of the nation.

• STATEMEMNT OF PROBLEMS

The problem of securing sufficient finance/fund for housing delivery has been a major obstacle to most investors in real estate. The acquisition, formation, raising, disbursement, utilization, repayment and recouping of capital are all pressing problems to real estate/housing delivery funding couple with the prevailing economic situation in Nigeria as a result of high rate of inflation which has adversely affect the real income, hence the level of savings of average Nigerians. This has led to low capital accumulations with the emphasis being that most Nigerian cannot fund real estate and housing delivery and must have to look elsewhere for finance/funds.

• AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Evidently, the aim of this dissertation is to show the potentiality of financing/funding in housing delivery, which is a viable investment, and to dispel the inhibiting fear of prospective investors and financiers on Owerri urban area. This stated aim is to be achieved through the following objectives:

1. To examine/investigate the various sources of finance for housing delivery in Owerri and suggest ways of improving them in order to make them more efficient.
2. To identify the problems militating against real estate housing delivery financing/funding in Owerri as well as their causes.
3. To examine government policies on financing real estate housing delivery in Owerri and role of financial institutions.
4. To x-ray and forecast possible/probable prospect of real estate financing/funding in Owerri, and
5. To suggest appropriate solutions to problems identified and recommend better fund for real estate housing delivery in Owerri and Nigeria in general.

   • RESEARCH QUESTION

Consequently the study was embarked to answer these questions:

• What are the ease and difficulty of obtaining mortgage loan for real estate housing?
• How is the readiness of mortgage and financial institutions to grant loan?
• What are the hindrances to real estate housing financing?.
• How is the efficiency of government policies in trying to solve the problem of financing real estate housing in Owerri.

• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

These subheadings tend to ask the question, so what? How can the result be used? And it is basically for this reason that the researcher attempts to answer the questions by critically assessing real estate housing and it’s financing in Owerri so as to point out those problems, which had been its draw-back.

Therefore, the result gotten at the end of the research would:

1. Afford those who intend to go into real estate housing investment, the knowledge of what it’s financing entails, the sources, method and selection of lending institutions that can conveniently and adequately provide the required funds needed for investment in Owerri.
2. Enable prospective financier and or investors even though he might be faced with competing alternative investment, stake his capital in real estate without bias and to
3. Serve as a reference for academic and all other financing purposes.

• SCOPE OF THE STUDY

In view of the broad nature of real estate housing, this dissertation is being limited to financing of residential and commercial housing categories. The researcher limits his study to the following aspects: type, feature/incentives of real estate housing financing in Owerri. The general financing capabilities of some lending institution were assessed and influences of government policies on real estate housing investment. The study covers the operations of Mortgage and financial institutions in Owerri and some other parastalel like Imo State Housing Corporation.

• DELINEATION OF THE STUDY AREA

Due to the vastness of the geographical area of Owerri, this study is limited to Owerri municipal as the study area. This is as shown on the map annexed in this write –up.

• LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

In carrying out this project, it was evident that many constraints lays ahead, that some factors would militate against the successful execution of the project work is naturally probable, hence the researcher anticipated and accommodated these problems.

Top on the list of these constraints is finance. Other problems included but were restricted to:

• Dearth of relevant literature, which made the work a Herculean task
• Restrictive feedback of the respondents during personal interview for fear of reprisals,
• Time constraints compounded by the vastness of the dissertation topic.
• The problems of unkempt appointments.
• Uncooperative attitude of staff of financial institution who do not want undue publicity of their client. The private investors fear to disclose their real estate investment. They either snub you or gave you unrealistic information.

These were problems encountered in data collection, which in no small measure helped in compounding the already existing problems.

Despite these odd, strenuous efforts were made by the researcher to give the subject a sound and adequate treatment. Besides, a careful analysis of the available data was made and up-dated where necessary. The findings are reliable and can be used to achieve to a reasonable degree the objectives of the study.

Pages:  77

Category: Project

Format:  Word & PDF        

Chapters: 1-5

Material contains Table of Content, Abstract and References.