Determinants of household residential location choice among informal settlers in Port Harcourt

Informal settlements, sometimes called slums, are sites of significant environmental risk in developing cities. Despite its environmental challenges, residents prefer to live in informal settlements rather than planned allocated plots. This paper assesses the determinants of households’ residential location decision in an informal settlement in Port Harcourt in order to gain understanding on what makes individuals consider a particular location in an informal settlement. The study employs a case study approach and uses both indepth face-to-face interviews and structured questionnaires on waterfront households using Cluster sampling to group the settlements into seven (7) zones based on their location in order to capture information on residential location choice decisions of respondents in the informal settlements. In each settlement, we interviewed two households, thereafter questionnaires were administered on 55 respondents’ household by trained graduate students who worked as enumerators. In all a total of 14 interviews were conducted and 385 questionnaires administered. Out of the 385 questionnaires administered, 315 were completed and returned. The results of the survey corroborated by an indebth interview revealed that the growing informality are not limited to income level, but household uses social networks (living close to family or friends), livelihood opportunities, proximity to work, and commuting cost to find accommodation, land for building and support for everyday life in an informal settlement.