ABSTRACT
Given the increasing importance of housing affordability in housing reform debates, and the low socio-economic status of urban households especially in developing countries including Nigeria, this study assessed the housing affordability in Zaria urban area with a view to determining the status of the households in terms of housing affordability. The study employed two approaches to measure housing affordability; the Expenditure-to-Income ratio and the Residual Income approach. Data was collected from the four districts of Zaria using 380 structured questionnaires. The data collected were on socio-economic characteristics of respondents which included data on income, employment and household size. Data on housing characteristics was also collected. This included data on housing type, housing expenditure and basic housing infrastructure. To measure housing affordability using the housing expenditure-to-income ratio, the data on housing expenditure and income collected from each household was used. The housing expenditure was expressed as a percentage of income.The residual income approach takes into consideration the income of households after housing expenditure and the differences in household size. The two approaches yielded separate results.The ratio approach indicated that 52.6%of the households in the study area are faced with problems of housing affordability, while the residual income approach indicated62.2%. The findings also revealedthe predominance of the owner occupier housing tenure and the inadequacy of the basic housing infrastructure in the study area. In order to tackle the housing affordability problem in the study area, there is the need for vigorous government intervention in housing development. The private sector's involvement needs to be highly encouraged too. The study recommends the incorporation of social housing into the housing development policy.