The Dynamics of Family Life Cycle in a Traditional African City: Implications for Households’ Housing Demand

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of the family life cycle on housing demand in different residential areas of Ibadan Municipality with a view to providing information on households‟ housing consumption for enhanced housing delivery. Data for the study were collected through questionnaire administered on household heads in the core, transition and suburban residential
areas of Ibadan Municipality using multi-stage sampling. In doing this, the political wards in the five local government areas were stratified into differential residential areas, thus making 59 political wards in the study area. Therefore, one political ward each was selected across the different residential areas of the five LGAs, thereby totalling 15 political wards. Respondents were drawn from 10% of identified buildings for questionnaire administration using a systematic sampling technique, thus making 363 household heads selected. The study revealed that respondents‟ socio-economic characteristics varied significantly across different residential areas.
The study also established that the proportion of households in stage four of the family life cycle, increased as distance increases from the core towards the suburban residential areas. The predominant households‟ housing tenure status was the leasehold. The study concluded that stages in family life cycle influenced households housing demand.