Home ownership, social costs, and wellbeing in self residence: the case of employees of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

The study assessed home ownership, social costs and wellbeing in self residence in Nigeria using the employees of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife as case study. Structured questionnaire was designed to elicit information from 279 respondents that were selected using convenience sampling method. Both descriptive and quantitative methods were employed in the analyses. The study revealed elements of economic and social dysfunctionality brought by dynamics of experiences of homeowners. This was made manifest in the form of personal provisions for water, electricity, roads, and partial completion in homes. It also manifested in the form of qualitative attributes which made it non competitive to discharge some academic responsibilities as effective as it ought to be if camp us residence were made available. Despite the challenges in terms of social costs in home ownership, the cultural orientation of Nigerians still deems it worth it to own a home. The study finally recommended an adjustment in OAU staff housing policy for academic and non-academic staff, and family sizes are getting smaller and families disperse, it behooves that new housing architectural design for housing units responding to evolving family sizes are necessary, and facilitation of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for the availability and affordability of public water and electricity supplies.