Tenants’ Demographic Characteristics and Tenancy Renewal Tendencies in Benin City Rental Housing, Nigeria

Abstract

Residential income flow depends upon the rents paid by each occupier and upon the occupancy rates based largely on tenancy renewal. Thus, the study examined the influence of demographic characteristics on the tenancy renewal tendencies of tenants in Benin City rental housing. A survey method was adopted, and three residential zones: the intermediate, suburban, and planned urban fringe areas in the metropolitan city of Benin, were purposively selected for the study. Household heads from randomly identified tenanted residential buildings were served with a total of 1900 questionnaires, while a total of 1215, representing a response rate of 63.9%, were retrieved. The demographic characteristics of tenants surveyed included age, ethnic origin, marital status, educational status, occupation, income level, and household size. Data gathered from the survey were analyzed using descriptive Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistics. Findings revealed that education (R² = 0.5125), occupation (R² = 0.6366), income (R² = 0.8341) and marital (R² = 0.7406) characteristics of residential tenants significantly correlate with tenancy renewal tendencies. The higher the educational, occupational, and income level of respondents, the more they are unlikely to renew their tenancy. Younger age (25 – 39 years) and single tenants with a desire to explore their 'freedom of choice' aided by their smaller family size were also found to be unlikely to renew the tenancy. On the other hand, older, married, and households with large family sizes were found to likely renew their tenancies. The study concludes that the demographic characteristics of tenants play a significant role in the housing decisions of tenants and should be taken as considerable housing satisfaction variables.