Project Materials

IMPACTS OF HOUSING COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES ON ECONOMIC GROWTH.

Chapter one

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Kinnis (2002) described co-operative housing as a society that co-operatively owns a collection of houses or flats, with each member actively participating in all estate concerns.

According to Sazama (2000), cooperative housing is a community in which members/residents jointly own and democratically control their buildings, as well as reap social and economic benefits from living in and owning them cooperatively.

Housing cooperatives are a practical and cost-effective method of home ownership. According to Victor and Bilyaminu (2002), 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 socioeconomic peculiarities will result in renewed hope for the average Nigerian in his quest to attain home ownership while also reliving him from his poverty trap.

A housing cooperative is a legal entity, typically a corporation, that owns real estate comprised of one or more residential structures; it is one type of housing tenure.

Housing cooperatives are a unique type of house ownership with several qualities that distinguish it from other residential arrangements such as single-family home ownership, condominiums, and renting. [retrieved 2 May 2015]

The corporation is a membership-based organisation, with membership obtained by the purchase of cooperative shares. Each shareholder in the legal entity has the right to inhabit one housing unit.

The housing cooperative’s fundamental advantage is the pooling of members’ resources, which leverages their purchasing power and lowers the cost per member for all services and products related with home ownership.

Another important aspect is that, unlike other forms of property ownership, members filter and select who may reside in the cooperative through their elected representatives.

Housing cooperatives are classified into two types of tenure: non-ownership (non-equity or continuous) and ownership (equity or strata).

In non-equity cooperatives, occupancy rights are occasionally granted subject to an occupancy agreement, which is akin to a lease.

In equity cooperatives, occupancy rights are occasionally granted through purchase agreements and legal instruments recorded on the title. The rules of the cooperative are specified in the corporation’s articles of incorporation and bylaws, as well as in the occupancy agreement.

The term “cooperative” can also refer to a non-share capital co-op model in which fee-paying members obtain the right to occupy a bedroom and share the communal resources of a cooperatively owned house.

1.2 Statement of The Problem

Because of the importance of cooperative society, the International Labour Organisation must demonstrate that “in the current National Development Plan, various measures are adopted to broaden the productive base of the economy as a strategy to achieve a strong and virile economy, enhance availability of improved technology and extensive services through cooperative society activities.”

The preceding policy statement clearly demonstrates that the status and prominence currently achieved and enjoyed by this relatively new organisation in our society serves as an agent of change in the national economy.

This understanding is therefore aimed at obtaining and observing the activities of cooperative society in Jeromi Ifelodun Local Government Lagos State through federal agencies to alleviate poverty, create wealth, and ensure food security through cooperative society’s scheme, the problem of ignorance, the formation of cooperative societies in Jeromi Ifelodun Local Government Lagos prevails, thus the need to research on.”