Product Differentiation and Consumers’ Preference for Housing Estates Among Clients in Housing Sector

The study investigated the effect of product differentiation and consumers’ preference for Housing Estate among clients in Lagos State, Nigeria. It specifically examines the effect of housing design; infrastructure; price and environment on clients’ preference for a housing estate. The study population comprises of clients in the selected housing estate in lekki area of Lagos State. A total of 400 questionnaires was administered out of 393 were returned using convenience and judgmental sampling techniques were used. Data collected were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The study revealed that housing design (β=0.784 & 0.818, p=0.02 <0.05) have the strongest statistically significant among the predictors of preference for a housing estate of other dimensions of product differentiation in this study. Next in strength of influence among the predictors is infrastructure attributes (β=0.626 & 0.624, p=0.045 <0.05). Also, environment which returned the lowest regression coefficient among the significant dimensions of product differentiation is considered to effect lesser influence on preference for Housing Estate with (β=0.361 & 0.372, p=0.015<0.05) while price (β=-0.058 & -0.079, p=0.117>0.05) was discovered to exert no statistically significant effect on preference for Housing Estate in Lagos State. Nigeria. The study concluded that the dimensions of product differentiation (Design, Infrastructure and Environment) have a strong and significant influence on preference for Housing Estate in a competitive environment. Thus, the management should give utmost priority to product differentiation dimensions in relation of their significance in order to achieve firm objectives and having a competitive advantage over their competitors by providing a durable driven design, quality infrastructure that stands the test of time, and a friendly and conducive environment. Also that the higher the level of differentiation, the more acceptability of the Housing Estate brand and the likelihood of being patronage, and competitive edge over others.