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Gender, ethnicity and residential discrimination: interpreting implicit discriminations in Lagos rental housing market

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Abstract

Housing discrimination is an element of urban housing markets responsible for social sorting, exclusion, segregation and marginality. However, existing studies have majorly explained housing discrimination in multi-racial societies of the Global North with less attention to discrimination within housing markets in the global south cities like Lagos megacity Nigeria. This study therefore examined discriminations in Lagos rental housing market using data from a survey of urban renters. Results showed that discrimination existed in Lagos rental housing market and majority of the victims were female headed households. After controlling for age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, religion and job status, the study found that personal attributes of prospective renters significantly influenced housing discrimination in the study area. However, while there was significant evidence of discrimination on account of gender, there was no significant evidence of discrimination on account of ethnicity in the Lagos housing market. These findings have strong policy implications for all inclusive housing market and social equity in African cities. It is therefore suggested that urban stakeholders should embark on social policy that could mitigate social inequity and gender inequality in the Nigerian housing markets.

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Notes

  1. The right to housing and adequate shelter to every qualified person has been recognized by the Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 which states unequivocally that ‘everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family, including food, housing, and medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control’. More pungently, the Yogyakarta principles on the application of international human rights law of 1991 also maintains that ‘everyone has the right to adequate housing, including protection from eviction, without discrimination and that states shall take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure security of tenure and access to affordable, habitable, accessible, culturally appropriate and safe housing including shelters and other emergency accommodation, without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or material or family status … and appropriate remedies are available to any person claiming that a right to protection against forced evictions has been violated or is under threat of violation including the right to resettlement, which includes the right to alternative land of better or equal quality and adequate housing without discrimination’.

  2. The American Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination by direct housing providers such as landlords and real estate companies as well as other players in the housing sector including municipalities, mortgage institutions, banks, and credit lending institutions, homeowner insurance companies whose discriminatory practices make housing unavailable to persons because of race, colour, religion, gender, nationality, familial status or disability. In the UK, the Equality Act of 2010 also makes provisions against housing discrimination. South Africa through the Rental Housing Act of 1999 has made elaborate pronouncement against all forms of discrimination by property owners based on race, gender, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, ethnicity, origin, colour, age, disability, religion, conscience, culture and language.

  3. Lagos is largely populated by the indigenes that ethnically are of Yoruba provenance and the migrants often together regarded as Lagosians. The migrants comprise largely the residents from other parts of Nigeria including the Yoruba, the Hausa, the Igbo, the Efik, the Edo, the Tivs, the Uhrobo, and a pocket of foreigners from neighboring countries especially Benin, Niger, Togo, and Ghana. Despite the fact that the city is increasingly becoming more cosmopolitan in social and economic affairs the Yoruba are ethnically conferred with the privilege of indigenization.

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  1. Department of Geography and Planning, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria

    I. R. Aliu

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Aliu, I.R. Gender, ethnicity and residential discrimination: interpreting implicit discriminations in Lagos rental housing market. J Hous and the Built Environ 39, 77–102 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-023-10073-7

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