CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Kinnis (2002) defined, co-operative housing as a society that co-operatively owns a group of houses or flats in. which each member participates actively in all matters concerning the estate. Sazama (2000) observes that, cooperative housing is a society where members/residents jointly own their buildings, democratically control them and receive social and economic benefits accruable from living in and owing them co-operatively. Housing co-operative is a pragmatic and cost effective means of home ownership. Victor and Bilyaminu (2002) said that, co-operative housing has been tested in many nations where it has been used, to varying degrees of success and to address housing problems, therefore modifying this concept to suit Nigerians socio-cultural and socio- economic peculiarities will result in renewed hope for the average Nigerian in his quest to attain home ownership as well as reliving him from his poverty trap.

A housing cooperative, is a legal entity, usually a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinctive form of home ownership that have many characteristics that differ from other residential arrangements such as single family home ownership, condominiums and renting.[Retrieved 2 May 2015]

The corporation is membership-based, with membership granted by way of a share purchase in the cooperative. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit. A primary advantage of the housing cooperative is the pooling of the members’ resources so that their buying power is leveraged, thus lowering the cost per member in all the services and products associated with home ownership.