ABSTRACT
Housing development involves huge capital expenditure, finance is therefore an essential ingredient in housing development. The cost, extent of which capital is provided and availability of finance for real estate development can influence the viability of such project. The study examined the concept of Housing Financing, the various sources of Finance available for Estate Development and also examined the factors militating against the availability of Funds for Housing Development. It further examined the effect of Government legislation on the Housing financial sector. The study made use of well structured questionnaires to collect expert opinion on the issues of interest. The data collected were analysed using the Relative Importance Index (RII) and mean. The study established that the most frequently used source of finance by private estate developers is the mortgage bank is having a grand mean value of 4.02 on a five (5) point scale. On the level of significance of the factors militating against the availability of funds, all of the militating factors investigated (excessive protocol and bureaucracy, collateral security, restriction of government policies, high interest rate, loan ceiling and duration) are highly significant (having mean values ranging from 3.80 to 4.31), Finance and land are the least available housing construction inputs (with means of 3.0). Interest rate charged by financial institution is very high (16% - 25%). The study concludes that finance is not readily available to private estate developers in Abuja, Nigeria. The study recommends that the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) should concentrate only on its wholesale functions and operate in the secondary mortgage market by providing mortgage banking services. This will guarantee the large-scale securitization of mortgage portfolios, a mechanism that has remained the primary engine of growth in the housing finance systems in developed countries such as France, Italy, Germany and United States.