Homeowners' perception of insurance of real estate development in Lagos, Nigeria

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the views held of property insurance by homeowners in IreAkari and Ikeja areas of Lagos State in Nigeria. This is with a view to establishing the factors that are responsible for lack of insurance culture in these areas in particular and also Nigeria in general. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were administered on 485 homeowners, selected through systematic random sampling techniques in the two areas studied. The first building along the major street in the areas was selected randomly and every tenth building formed the subsequent unit of investigation. A household head/owner was surveyed in each of the building selected. Data were analysed with the use of frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation (SD) measure and Chisquare test. Findings – The results showed that 62.9 per cent of the total respondents agreed that property insurance was essential. However, only 40.3 per cent of the homeowners claimed to have insured their properties against unforeseen occurrences. The study found that homeowners' lack of insurance culture was significantly associated with their educational qualifications (χ² = 41.387, ρ < 0.01), family size (χ² = 12.199, ρ < 0.05), level of income (χ² = 36.585, ρ < 0.01) and level of awareness (χ² = 27.987, ρ < 0.01). It was also discovered that homeowners' attitude was influenced by the poor service culture of insurance companies and crime in the insurance industry. Practical implications – The study concluded that the lower the level of income, educational qualification and level of awareness on the part of homeowners, the more the likelihood that they will not insure their properties and vice versa. Originality/value – The study is one of the few attempts at examining the factors responsible for homeowners' lukewarm attitude to property insurance in an emerging market like Nigeria.