Reliability of Homeownership Through Self-Build Approach in The Suburban Area of Nigeria Cities

To be a homeowner has become what people desire, while different approaches have been adopted. The most common one in Nigeria is self-build housing method. The main focus of this paper is the assessment of self-build method, with a view to identifying the reliability of the method, towards increasing homeownerships and builds a sustainable living environment. The study made use of the existing literatures that were recently conducted empirically on Nigeria cities to make its findings. The paper discovered that self-build approach is a veritable instrument to increase the number of homeowners in Nigeria cities. The residents in Nigeria urban areas, particularly in the suburbs have been utilising the approach to become homeowners. The approach has not been helpful in building a sustainable urban environment, where all needed facilities will be provided to create a good living environment. This is because of some deficiencies in the application of the approach, which includes lack of compliance to rules and regulations that guide development control, poor land use planning, and inadequate involvement of professionals in the construction process and inadequate provision of the basic public services, among others. Based on these findings, the paper recommended that since self-build has become a tradition in housing provision, government should assume effective control of the process, by improving on the level of development control supervision. This will ensure strict compliance to land use planning and housing construction, through the involvement of relevant professionals in the built environment, at all stages of land use process and construction.