ABSTRACT
During the last three decades, Nigerian Urban centres have witnessec unparalleled upsurge in both human numbers and structural configuration. This was predicated by the oil boom of the 1970s with its attendant emphasis on Urban Development, the glitter of which pulled the rural populace towards these Urban Areas. Increased urbanism resulted in a general increase in mobility. This was especially evident in housing in which the growing population had to be provided with adequate housing. But urban development programmes has too often produced only a tiny fraction of housing requirements for the teaming population and where private enterprise has produced housing whose price is beyond the reach of a greater percentage of the population. Low income groups have therefore been left to the exigencies of market forces and the filtering process. Under this, housing units may shift from owner-occupier to rental status or rental status to owner occupier depending on downward or upward shifts in income and social status of property owner and Renters. The characteristics of occupants alter over time; hence a given unit may serve a family at different stages of its life cycle. The extent to which residential mobility takes place is a function of the variations in price of new construction, spatial location, rent differentials, the information network, the demand for housing at particular points in time, the vii effectiveness of estate agents and the degree of adherance to rent controls by landlords. In short, there is a ferment of physical, economic, social and legal movement that takes place in residential mobility as the process is continually adapting to the changing requirements of the society. This Thesis is an attempt to examine the characteristics and determinants of residential mobility in Kaduna Metropolis. It has five chapters. Chapter one is an introductory chapter which defines the research problem, its aim and objectives, methods of data collection and analysis and a background to the study area. It also identifies types of residential movements and their spatial components. Chapter two provides an in-depth literature on the concept, pattern and process of residential change. Chapter three examines the characteristics and determinants of the phenomenon in the metropolis while chapter four considers the implications of residential mobility on urban management. Chapter five makes recommendations and proposals on the methodology of measuring residential change.