Purpose Rental housing is an important form of accommodation; evaluating its quality will improve the quality of designs, standard living of renters, new dimension to policy guiding rental housing and enhance the values of rental houses. This study aims to examine the factors influencing rental housing quality in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select tenants for the study. Residential areas were stratified into three densities: high, medium and low. Out of the 18 residential areas identified, six, eight and four were in the high, medium and low densities, respectively. Five residential areas were selected based on high concentrations of rental housing. The selected areas are Mokuro and Iloro (high density), Ife City and Eleyele (medium density) and Aladanla (low density). Systematic sampling technique was used to select 550 buildings where an adult tenant was selected per building for questionnaire administration. Findings The results of the principal component analysis established that four factors were generated for the high-density, nine factors for the medium-density and five factors for low-density areas as the major factors influencing rental housing quality. The variation in the number of factors generated and the percentage variance explained by the factors could be associated to the peculiarities across the densities in terms of the socioeconomic characteristics and housing characteristics of the renters. Originality/value This study examined the factors influencing housing quality for renters in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. It provides information on the three residential densities in terms of the variation in their housing morphology. The study went further to establish the relationship among the three musketeers such as socioeconomic characteristic of renters, housing characteristics and housing quality, under three dimensions environmental, internal building and external Building. Therefore, the contribution of this study strengthens the position that a minimum standard and schedule of upgrade and maintenance should be meted out for landlords to carry out repairs at interval, so as to make the housing unit and environment habitable for tenants.

PurposeThe study had examined the dynamism in rental housing characteristic in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through questionnaire administration on 550 tenants selected across high, medium and low density areas, using systematic random sampling.FindingsFindings revealed that rented apartments in the traditional town are built with modern materials like sandcrete blocks, cement, corrugated roofing sheet and aluminium. Further findings revealed a statistical significant variation in the rental housing typologies across the residential densities (χ2 = 94.732a, df = 10 and p = 0.000). The dominant housing typology in the low income earners areas is rooming apartments known traditionally as (face-to-face), in the middle income earners areas detached and semi-detached bungalows (Mini, 2bedroms and 3 bedrooms flat); and lastly, bungalows and duplexes dominates the high income earners areas. Therefore, the study likened the variation across the income areas to deferential in socioeconomic characteristics of tenants, surroundings peculiarities and the landlord and tenant relationships.Originality/valueThe outcome of this study could strengthen policies in creating design standards for construction of housing for renters; this is step towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, creating an inclusive communities.

The study examined the relationships between residents’ socioeconomic characteristics and the housing quality standard in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Systematic sampling technique was used to select 198 household heads for questionnaire administration. The findings revealed that socioeconomic factors are correlated in the following proportions: educational level shows a moderate correlation with monthly income (r = .463, p < 0.01), length of stay (r = -.433, p < 0.01) and age of building (r = -.414, p < 0.05); monthly income displays a fairly strong correlation with length of stay (r = -.502, p < 0.01) and age of building (r = -.625, p < 0.01); household size presents a relatively strong correlation with length of stay (r = .766, p < 0.01), and a moderate correlation with age of building (r = .545, p < 0.01). The results of the multiple regression analysis produced an R2 = 0.387, meaning that socioeconomic variables explained the 38.7% variance in the housing quality standard (HQS) in the study area. Therefore, the study concluded that length of stay, educational level and age of building are strongly associated with the housing quality in Abeokuta.