REBIRTHING HOUSING DELIVERY FOR END-USERS IN NIGERIA AND THE PIVOTAL ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Olanrewaju I. Abiola
Abstract
The floor area we occupy is expected to double by 2060, with most of this growth occurring in residential construction. Population growth and urbanisation in emerging markets will mean expanding cities and rising demand for new urban housing in urban areas and the world (Saberi and Menes, 2020). The trends represent an enormous opportunity to design, build and operate the homes of tomorrow in intelligent ways that minimise energy consumption and carbon emissions (against the backdrop of climate change concerns, advocacy, and justice), and lower building and home ownership costs and capital value. Nigeria has an estimated 28 million housing deficit as of 2023 and circa N21 trillion to fill this deficit (National Bureau of Statistics, 2023). Artificial Intelligence is expected to play a pivotal role in this area using data- including performance, resource consumption, reduced outgoings from service charge administration, drive cost efficiency and increased residents’ comfort. Artificial intelligence will also use data sets from this research to improve residential housing development conceptualisation, design, and construction and shape policy actions by the government and other actors in the housing value chain around spatial planning and development control. The research aims to critically examine how artificial intelligence will shape the future of residential housing development in terms of energy efficiency and affordability for residential end-users in Nigeria. The research is still ongoing.
Keywords: urban housing, artificial intelligence, resource optimisation, energy consumption, housing value chain
JEL Classification: Q55, R31, O18