ABSTRACT

Neighbourhood upgrade is an integral part of the global focus on sustainable development although the concept has become extremely controversial principally because it involves the destruction of businesses, the relocation of people and the use of the trend is justified because of its potency for the renewal of residential slums and blighted commercial and industrial areas. The controversy around neighbourhood upgrade therefore depicts and typifies an oscillation and a pull between two ends: a progressive economic and national development and a regressive mechanism for enriching the rich to the detriment of both the tax-payers and the poor. This study therefore examines home owner’s response to neighbourhood upgrade in Ugbowo-Benin City. The study which uses both primary and secondary data posits that the neighbourhood upgrade which involves road rehabilitation and demolition of structures which recently took place in the study area results in influx of more residents in the area as well as reducing the number of stores for commercial activities-Home owner’s are taking advantage of this situation to increase their rents, convert their buildings to more profitable use, and building additional structures or extensions to their buildings, all at the detriment of the tenants. The study therefore recommends that government should come to the aid of these tenants by building low-cost houses and establishing rent control practices and housing improvement regulation, which will protect the helpless tenants from being unnecessarily exploited.