Gambo et al. / Journal of Building and Environmental Engineering Vol. 2, Issue 1 (2021) 81-88 JBEEJournal- Journal of Building and Environmental Engineering Copyright © Publisher Scientific Academia Network (Scientiaca) E-ISSN:2756-7826 ARTICLE FINANCE ACCESSIBILITY AND AFFORDABILITY TO LOW-INCOME EARNERS’ HOUSING OWNERSHIP IN BAUCHI LOCAL GOVERNMENT, NIGERIA Moses Jonathan Gamboa,*, Sani Usman Kunyab, Inuwa Yusuf Mohammedc , Musa Jacob Ashend a Department of Estate Management, Faculty of Environmental Technology, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Bauchi State, NIGERIA b,cDepartment of Building Technology, Faculty of Environmental Technology, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Bauchi State, NIGERIA d Department of Estate Management, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Jos, Plateau State, NIGERIA * Corresponding author: mjgambs@gmail.com ARTICLE HISTORY Received: 8 March 2021 Accepted: 26 May 2021 Published Online: 27 June 2021 KEYWORDS Finance Accessibility Affordability Low-income earners Primary school teachers ABSTRACT Housing accessibility and affordability is not simply a matter of housing costs and income levels, but it is about people’s ability to obtain housing and to stay in it, however this has proven to be impracticable to the lowincome earners particularly primary school teachers who can neither access nor afford housing finance. Hence, this study examines the level of accessibility and affordability of housing finance to low-income earners in Bauchi Local Government, Nigeria. A sample of 500 Bauchi Local Government Education Authority primary school teachers, from a population of 5,474 teachers was drawn on the basis of simple random sampling. The study's methodology included the use of self-administered structured questionnaires to collect data from respondents. Descriptive analyses had been used for the data analysis through SPSS version 23. The findings revealed that challenges in accessing housing finance have been a critical problem for respondents in the study area, as well as the availability of collateral for bank security, which prevents respondents from affording housing finance loans. It was suggested that financial institutions make housing finance loans available and affordable to low-income earners in order to help primary school teachers realize their dream of owning a home in Bauchi, Nigeria. 1.0 INTRODUCTION H ousing finance accessibility and affordability is not simply a matter of housing costs and income levels, but it is about people’s ability to obtain housing and to stay in it. Darko (2012) argued that housing finance assumes an essential role in moulding every nation's more extensive housing framework and the housing framework takes vital social and monetary results. Then, it follows that the advancement of a reasonable housing finance framework is of most extreme significance in the developed economies. Manda et al. (2011) stated that housing finance remains a noteworthy obstruction to effective housing ownership, particularly among the low-income earners. The affordable housing problem is also a growing social and economic issue in developed countries. According to the 2000 census, housing affordability is an issue for 22.3 million households (21.1 per cent) of American families (Denis, 2011). The Department of Housing and Urban Development in the United States of America (USA) declared that low income should be considered for any household with less than 80 percent of the regional median income. Housing affordability has therefore been identified as an issue affecting a very large proportion of American households. This can be described as the gap between very poor incomes and the minimum cost of adequate shelter (Okoroafor, 2007; Wa'el Abdulmoghni, 2010). Lack of housing finance in Ghana results in poor and insufficient housing consumption (Boamah, 2010). Most people finance personal savings on their home acquisitions (Boafo, Wuni & Wuni, 2017). Likewise, in Uganda only a limited proportion of households can receive formal mortgages because of insufficient housing financing (Kalema & Kayiira, 2008). In South Africa, on the other hand, considerable progress has been made in expanding mortgage financing particularly for the black population and the lower end of the market, although the progress has been adversely affected by high interest rates and the economic recession following the global financial crisis of 2008 (Cloete & Marais, 2020). In Ghana, for example, traditional mortgage lenders are limited in their duty to serve low-income individuals, as they need little improvement for unrewarding incremental housing. Zambian housing finance revolves around the relatively "obvious" aims of providing housing financing to highincome earners, thereby excluding low-income earners who make up the majority of the population. The South African formal banking industry, like other developing countries, still considers it overly risky to operate on the market for 81 Gambo et al. / Journal of Building and Environmental Engineering Vol. 2, Issue 1 (2021) 81-88 low-income earners, despite concerted government attempts to fix housing inefficiency. In Nigeria, according to Adedokun, Akinradewo and Adegoke (2012), 60% of the new houses built up each year are funded by personal income and savings and often with the support of local cooperative societies (Kuma, 2016). Finance focus has been prominent, because housing requires huge capital costs, well beyond the capacities of low-income earners. According to Afrane, Owusu-Manu, Donkor-Hyiaman, and Bondinuba (2016), one of the fundamental reasons why housing finance has been underestimated is the large amount of capital required to buy or lease a house. This is supported by Nakweenda (2014), who claims that new initiatives in Ghana, Zambia, and South Africa are not working for low-income earners. Despite this, Ghosh, Goel and Ojha (2018) argued that the overwhelming majority of housing finance activities for housing ownership adopted by underdeveloped nations governments frequently end up profiting high and middleincome earners. One of the key problems found in developing countries is access to funding to create adequate housing for low-income earners. Wapwera, Parsa and Egbu (2011) indicated that in many nations the housing finance sector is rising quite strongly, but access to housing financing for low-income earners remains a problem that may be the after-effect of financial regulations that do not have a steady structure to support low-income housing finance. Access to housing by the poor who constitute the largest percentage of the world population has remained a mirage which needs to be holistically addressed. Olotuah (2009) has observed that the disparity between cost and quantity of housing on one hand, and the number of households and the money available to them to purchase the little available housing units in contrast, constitutes a great issue to housing ownership. The price at which housing units reach in the market plays a significant role in determining its affordability. Where the cost of a house per unit is unprecedentedly high only a few people can afford the houses. Ironically, the low-income earners who constitute the majority of the Nigerian society are the most affected by the finance menace. Atamewan, Eyo and Effanga (2017) studied appraisal of availability and accessibility to mortgage finance for sustainable housing delivery in Nigeria which focused on university staff, the research identified the inability of a high proportion of workers within the middle- and highincome groups to own houses. Adedeji and Olotuah (2012) on the other hand studied evaluation of accessibility of lowincome earners to housing finance in Nigeria which also focused on university staff. The study revealed that the level of accessibility of low-income earners to housing finance in Nigeria is still very low despite the intermediation of private developers and cooperative societies in sourcing housing finance. Adedeji (2007) studied materials preference options for sustainable low-income housing in selected cities in Nigeria. The research revealed level of accessibility to housing finance especially by low-income earners in Nigeria and also assess their economically disadvantaged position, which makes quality housing to be out of their reach. Nwuba and Chukwuma-Nwuba (2018) studied the barriers to accessing mortgages in Nigeria’s housing markets and the study identified the barriers to include low incomes and savings which `constrain households’ ability to pay mortgage instalments and deposits, high interest rates and inadequate loanable funds. Okoroafor (2007) and Ferguson and Smets (2010) identified and examined the most commonly used methods of housing finance describing the processes involved by focusing on the different methods of housing finance in different countries in Latin America, Africa and other developing countries. Although few researchers such as those cited above have studied housing ownership, accessibility to finance and affordability of the houses to low-income earners in Nigeria, none have given attention to Primary school teachers who are the least paid compared to other academic staff at different educational levels in Nigeria. The structural variables (finance accessibility and affordability) in housing finance issues identified can be structurally framed by scheming finance accessibility and affordability as “finance context. Hence, the study examines the level of accessibility and affordability of housing finance to low-income earners in Bauchi Local Government, Nigeria. 2.0 CONCEPT OF HOUSING OWNERSHIP Housing ownership can be identified as the act of ensuring that individuals in a network have a place to live; it could be a house or another type of dwelling, cabin, or haven (Green, 2017). According to Lemoine (2003) a housing unit is a house, a flat, a manufactured house, a gathering, or a solitary room that is involved (or if empty, is expected for inhabitancy) as independent living quarters. However, A house, according to Gavu and Owusu-Ansah (2019), is a structurally separate and independent place of habitation where a person or group of people can isolate themselves from climate hazards such as storms and the sun. As a result, the definition included any type of living quarters shelter, such as detached houses, semi-detached houses, flats/apartments, compound houses, huts, tents, kiosks, and containers (Peprah & Obeng, 2015). Consequently, the priority accorded the issue of housing is immense; to most governments, the availability of sufficient but basic housing for all is often stated as a priority for enhancing the social needs of the society (Crouch, 2009). According to Olatunbosun (2018) habitable housing contributes to the health, efficiency, social behaviour and general welfare of the populace. Apart from providing man with shelter and security, housing plays a major role in serving as an asset (Mandič, 2010). These variables decide the aggregate cost of the residence and it brings about an extensive variety of housing right, which stresses the substitutability of one segment for another (Candela & Figini, 2012). 82 Gambo et al. / Journal of Building and Environmental Engineering Vol. 2, Issue 1 (2021) 81-88 2.1 Effective Housing Ownership 3.0 FINANCING OF HOUSING The demand for effective housing ownership is derived from each household‘s willingness to pay for housing. The level of household income, its distribution and the prices of available housing and of other goods and services are important influences on decisions about how much to spend on housing, so is the demographic pattern which determine the growth of demand over time, The distribution of income affects the affordability of housing for different income earners (Aluko, 2008). Non-financial factors, for example, tastes and inclinations can be imperative in numerous social and political situations. In this manner, the makers of housing have a proceeding with issue of adjusting supply against request, for if the last falls in respect to the previous, at that point cost is probably going to drop, and the degree of drop would mirror the flexibility of interest for housing. The circumstance in Nigeria has been ineffective housing ownership by low-income earners because of the falling per capita salary and high joblessness level of the subjects (Aluko, 2008). The house that an individual lives in is the image of their status; a measure of their accomplishment and social acknowledgment; the foundation of an agreeable domain and solid living. Effective housing ownership can likewise be utilized as the indicator to quantify the abundance of houses in a country (Halme, Anttonen, Hrauda & Kortman, 2006). Housing finance is a broad subject, with different interpretations across major lands, districts, and nations, particularly in terms of the regions it covers (Scott, 2013). For example, what is understood in a developed nation by the word "housing finance" may be entirely different from what is understood in a developing nation by the term (Dixon and Adams, 2008). The reason for a housing finance framework is to give the assets which homepurchasers need to buy their homes (Drury, 2009). This is a basic target, and the quantity of manners by which it can be accomplished is constrained (Zhu, 2006). Nevertheless, in various nations, extremely convoluted housing finance frameworks have been produced to a great extent because of government activity. Nonetheless, the fundamental element of any framework, that is, the ability to channel the funds of investors to those purchasing their homes, must remain (Lockton et al., 2008). Blaser and Zabel (2014) contrasting various nations gathered close by improvement strata demonstrates that more grounded legitimate rights for the two borrowers and loan specialists, macroeconomic conditions and more profound credit data framework are solid factors that can help in developing the home loan showcase in any nation. The more the data accessible and the simpler it is to uphold insurance rights (capacity to have), the greater the market has a tendency to be in all nations (Warnock and Warnock, 2008). The impact of mortgage finance can be important in poverty reduction, growth and general economic development of the country especially during construction. The term “mortgage” has been in existence since the 17th Century. It is a loan often associated with real estate. Indeed, the history of the word has been traced back to the legal interpretation by the old French to mean “dead” (mort), “contract” or “pledge” (gage). Mortgages, like other loans, have a fixed term to maturity, a date by which the loan must be fully repaid (Alagbe, 2013). Consequently, it was seen as the probability that the mortgagor will repay his debt but in the event of a default, the pledged property (in those days, land) was taken over or seized from him and thus considered “dead” to him (mortgagor). If the incurred debt (loan) was repaid, then the land pledged was dead to the mortgagee (Kama et al., 2013). 2.2 Low-income earners According to Opoko and Oluwatayo (2016) low-income earners are all employees and self-employed people whose annual income is N100,000:00 or less (i.e. the equivalent of salary grade level 01-06 within the civil service). Around 57 % of the Nigerian population live below the poverty line, which is set at US$1 per day on average (Wahab, 2006). According to Adedeji and Olotuah (2012), most employees in the public and private sectors, as well as many self-employed Nigerians, earn significantly less than the national minimum wage and according to (Gambo, Kunya, Ishiyaku, Ashen & Dzasu, 2021) particularly primary school teachers. By extension, this means that approximately 70 % of Nigerians form the nucleus of the nation’s economy. Low-income earners can be divided into two categories, namely, the low-income earners who have no profitable business and the low-income earners who are employed. The low-income earner is therefore, a relative term and to identify the low-income earners, it is necessary to consider the cognisance of the location, and cost of living, employment status of individuals, and their expenditure characteristics within a free market economy. The lowincome earners are junior civil service workers such as the Primary school teachers, traders and artisans. These categories of people are found in most Nigerian cities (Onu & Onu, 2012). 3.1 Finance Context It is no longer unusual to discover that some Nigerians, particularly those from low-income families living in urban areas, are homeless. The reason is that the cost of building or renting an accommodation is simply beyond the reach of an average Nigerians. As a result, the Nigerian housing sector faces two challenges: affordability and accessibility. Several housing construction and delivery systems are primarily aimed at the middle- and upper-income segments of the population, who can either pay cash or obtain housing finance from banks (Atamewan et al., 2017; Gambo et al., 2021). 83 Gambo et al. / Journal of Building and Environmental Engineering Vol. 2, Issue 1 (2021) 81-88 high rent can be attributed to the decrease in housing stock. Housing is an essential component of every nation's social and economic fabric. 3.1.1 Finance accessibility The relevance of this viewpoint to housing ownership accessibility is that it ensures that housing provision is not focused on some "selected" segments of society, but that all members of the community have an equal opportunity to choose their own accommodation based on their means or affordability level (Okewole & Aribigbola, 2006). Social equity is concerned with the social view of housing and refers to a situation in which all citizens have equal access to housing regardless of their socioeconomic background or social status (Opoko & Oluwatayo, 2016; Gambo et al., 2021). 3.1.2 Finance affordability According to Mulliner, Malys, and Maliene (2016), housing affordability has become a common way of summarizing the nature of the housing difficulty in many nations in recent years. This is in contrast to previous decades' definitions of the'slum problem,' 'low-income housing problem,' 'housing shortage,' or 'housing need.' In most definitions of the term, a household has a housing affordability problem if it pays more than a certain percentage of its income to obtain adequate and appropriate housing. According to Gan and Hill (2009), Gambo et al., (2021) a household's ability to purchase a home can be viewed in at least three different ways. We distinguish between purchase affordability, repayment affordability, and income affordability. Purchase affordability considers whether a family can borrow enough money to buy a house. The burden imposed on a household by mortgage repayment is considered in repayment affordability. The ratio of house prices to income is used to calculate income affordability. Despite the fact that there is an excess demand for housing in Nigeria, either for ownership or for rent, their purchasing power is limited by their respective income. Although most low-income earners in Nigeria, particularly primary school teachers, are unable to purchase houses from public or private developers, public developers do provide these houses in the form of mortgages. According to Ademiluyi and Raji (2008), private developers contribute a significant portion of the country's housing stock. Oni-Jimoh, Liyanage, Oyebanji and Gerges (2018) also observed that policy makers are not really aware of the magnitude of housing problems for low- income earners when looking at increase in house rent and rising cost of building materials. But Udoka and Kpataene (2017) noted that the increasing 4.0 METHODOLOGY The study involved the use of questionnaires to collect information from a sample of (357) Primary school teachers of Bauchi Local Government Education Authority which have about 5,474 teachers in 2019. A five (5) point Likert scale was used for the variable items to ease the means of assessing the responses (Kothari, 2004). Going by the performance descriptors in Braunsberger and Gates (2009) the descriptors used for Accessibility, were very likely rated 5, likely rated 4, uncertain rated 3, Unlikely rated 2 and very unlikely rated 1. Those used for Affordability were very high rated 5, high rated 4, uncertain rated 3, low rated 2 and very low rated 1. Bauchi Local Government was chosen because it has the most primary school teachers (Levels 1-6) in the study area, accounting for approximately 29.1% of the total population of primary school teachers in the State, which is 18,755 according to EMIS SUBEB in 2017 (Gambo et al., 2021). Primary school teachers were chosen because their salaries are the lowest in Nigeria, according to FixusJobs.com (2017), and they are at the very bottom of the salary scale for teachers and the low-income group. The average monthly salary for Nigerian primary school teachers is N15,000 ($41.72). Mean ranking were carried out using SPSS 23 software to show the level of institutional context to low-income earners in Bauchi Local Government Education Authority. The descriptors used for mean ranking (5-point Likert scale) as in Braunsberger and Gates (2009) are: ranges from Less than 1.00 (Very poor); 1.00 – 1.99 (Poor); 2.00 – 2.99 (Neither good nor poor); 3.00 – 3.99 (Very good) and Above 4.00 (Excellent) Reliability test was carried out to measure reliability of constructs as suggested by Pallant (2011). All of the constructs in Table 1 had a Cronbach's Alpha of more than 0.7, according to the results (Gambo et al., 2021). Table 1. Reliability of field results Contexts Constructs Cronbach's Alpha No. of Items Finance Context Accessibility .780 14 Affordability .813 15 84 Gambo et al. / Journal of Building and Environmental Engineering Vol. 2, Issue 1 (2021) 81-88 5.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 5.1 Demography Respondent demographic characteristics include gender, age, level of education, years in service, length of service, and monthly income. The frequency and percentage analysis was performed, and the results are shown in Table 2. According to the results shown in Table 2, the majority of respondents (62.7 %) were male, while their female counterparts made up only 37.3 % of the sample. This suggests that male respondents predominated in the teaching profession in the study area. The table also shows that the dominant age group was 35 years and below as noted from 50.9%, only 3.3% was 66 years and above of age. According to the information gathered from the respondents regarding their level of education revealed that 52% of them held NCE/National diploma as compared to 28.9% who held Bachelor’s degree/HND and 8% who held Master’s degree holders. Majority of the respondents have been in the teaching profession for 10 years and below represented by 52.3% as compared to 11.2% who have been in the profession for 26years or more. In addition, 49.6 % of respondents earn more than N40,000 per month, compared to 3.0 % who earn less than N11,000 in the study area (Gambo et al., 2021). Table 2. Result of the demography Variables Gender Options Male Female Age Under 26 years Between 26 – 35 years Between 36 – 45 years Between 46 - 55 years Between 56 - 65 years 66 years and above Level of education Primary School Living Certificate Secondary School/Cert. National Diploma/NCE Bachelor’s degree/HND Master’s Degree and above Year of service Under 6 years Between 6 – 10 years Between 11 – 15 years Between 16 – 20 years Between 21 – 25 years 26 years and above Monthly income Under N11, 000 Between N11,000 - N20,000 Between N21, 000 - N30,000 Between N31, 000 - N40,000 Over N40,000 Total Frequency 230 137 367 82 105 72 44 52 12 367 11 28 191 106 31 367 106 86 51 39 44 41 367 11 23 89 62 182 367 Percent 62.7 37.3 100.0 22.3 28.6 19.6 12.0 14.2 3.3 100.0 3.0 7.6 52.0 28.9 8.4 100.0 28.9 23.4 13.9 10.6 12.0 11.2 100.0 3.0 6.3 24.3 16.9 49.6 100.0 5.2 Level of Housing Finance Accessibility to Low- Income Earners in Bauchi Table 3 contains an analysis of the accessibility of finance to low-income earners in the study area. The ranking mean and standard deviation for each item were displayed in the results. Based on their perceptions in the study area, a mean ranking of the accessibility of finance to low-income earners was conducted. It was observed that challenges in accessing housing finance with the mean 2.88 was ranked 1st as the most crucial among the accessibility, followed by ‘qualify for a loan’ is very difficult to attain with the mean value of 2.83 (ranked 2nd). Next was ‘collateral (like property) that can be used to collect loan’ with the mean value of 2.82, ranked 3rd. while the 4th ranking was possibility of succeeding in applying for loan with mean value of 2.82. The least performance identified was the ‘location of where you like your house to be’ with 2.52 as the mean value and ranked 12th, and followed by ‘years of 85 Gambo et al. / Journal of Building and Environmental Engineering Vol. 2, Issue 1 (2021) 81-88 service’ with the lowest mean value of 2.42 (ranked 13th). From the analysis result, it shows that access to finance is ‘neither good nor bad’ which is between the ranges of 2.00 - 2.99 based on the ranking scale. Table 3. Level of housing finance accessibility to low-income earners in Bauchi Variables Challenges in accessing housing finance Qualify for a loan is very difficult to attain Collateral (like property) that can used to collect loan Possibility of succeeding in applying for loan Access to loan that can pay for a house at once Cash deposit like part-payment needed Flexibility in the housing loan terms Repayment ability based on your income level Down payment requirement Processing of loan applications with financial institutions Value of property needed Beneficiary's preferred location for house, Years of service Mean 2.88 2.83 2.82 2.82 2.81 2.79 2.77 2.75 2.71 2.71 2.70 2.52 2.42 Std. Deviation 1.17861 1.20658 1.20505 1.17773 1.21777 1.26002 1.21553 1.21347 1.28139 1.25646 1.18163 1.22326 1.26665 Ranking 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 5.3 Level of Housing Finance Affordability to Low-Income Earners in Bauchi The analysis result for affordability of finance was presented in Table 4, with the ranking mean and standard deviation for each item. In Table 4, a mean ranking was conducted on the affordability of finance to low-income earners based on their perception in the study area. It was observed that availability of collateral for bank security with the mean 3.07 was ranked 1st as the most crucial among the affordability, followed by affordability of monthly repayments with mean value of 2.97 which was ranked 2nd. Next to it was repayment period of the housing loan with mean value of 2.90, ranked 3rd. while the 4th ranking was willingness of renting to buying a house in Bauchi with mean value of 2.81 followed by average monthly income expended on housing units with mean value of 2.50 which is ranked 13th and cost of houses in Bauchi with lowest ranking of 2.48 mean value and ranked 14th. From the analysis result, it shows that affordability of finance is “neither good nor bad” which is between the ranges of 2.00 – 2.99 based on the ranking scale. Table 4. Level of housing finance affordability to low-income earners in Bauchi Variables Availability of Collateral for bank security Affordability of monthly repayments Repayment period of the housing loan Willingness of renting to buying a house in Bauchi Service charges level of Housing finance Risk level of borrowing Level of VAT on materials used to construct houses Interest rates charged on housing loans Level of inability to afford housing prices Influence of interest rate in ability to afford a house? Houses too expensive to afford by low-income earners Price level of houses Average monthly income expended on housing units Cost of houses in Bauchi Mean 3.07 2.97 2.90 2.81 2.74 2.73 2.70 2.68 2.67 2.65 2.54 2.53 2.50 2.48 Std. Deviation 1.12232 1.16146 1.20192 1.16091 1.28563 1.23064 1.14404 1.15776 1.18323 1.19842 1.20243 1.14685 1.41783 1.13993 Ranking 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 5.4 Discussion The research findings show that a critical problem for the primary school teachers in Bauchi Local Government is challenges in accessing housing finance which poses a lot of difficulties, and this discourages them from approaching the housing finance institutions for obtaining housing loan. This study showed that the respondents could not meet the requirements for accessing home loan because they were not qualified. According to the findings the inability of the respondents to provide collateral created a barrier to housing ownership in the study area. The study also revealed that majority of the Primary school teachers could not meet up with the requirements for succeeding in applying for home loan which is a hindrance to owning a house. In the study, the beneficiarys’ desire for the location of his house was also 86 Gambo et al. / Journal of Building and Environmental Engineering Vol. 2, Issue 1 (2021) 81-88 an impediment to obtaining housing finance.According to the findings of the study, years of service is not a significant factor in obtaining housing finance because the majority of respondents have more than 15 years in service, giving them the leverage to pay for a long period of time. (Gambo, et al., 2021). The study further revealed that the respondents could not afford monthly repayment considering their monthly salaries which is another roadblock to obtaining effective housing finance in the study area.In the study it shows that the repayment period was too short for the respondents to afford housing finance. The study found that respondents are more willing to rent than to buy a house because they cannot afford the housing finance loan. The influence of unemployment rate on affordability was never an impediment in the study because they were all primary school teachers, which means they were all earning a living. The cost of houses was also a factor in the study that affected respondents' affordability to housing finance (Gambo et al., 2021). 6.0 Conclusion According to the study’s findings, challenges in accessing housing finance, qualifying for a loan, collateral that can be used to collect loan and possibility of being successful in applying for a loan are the impediments to accessibility to finance by the low-income earners, while the least accessibility of finance are beneficiary's preferred location for his house, years of service and total access to finance. The study also indicated that collateral for bank security, affordability of monthly repayments, repayment period of the housing loan and willingness of renting than buying a house are the major constraints of the affordability of finance to low-income earners while the influence of unemployment rate is the least affordability of finance. The study concludes that low-income earners face accessibility and affordability challenges to housing finance loans in Bauchi, making home ownership out of reach for them. However, accessibility and affordability will improve the chances of low-income earners, particularly primary school teachers in Bauchi Local Government, of realizing their dreams of long-term housing ownership. As a result, financial institutions should make housing finance loans available and affordable to low-income earners. Acknowledgement The authors acknowledge the assistance of The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Nigeria during the period of this research. 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