PATTERNS AND MODELS OF BUILDING-USE CONVERSION IN METROPOLITAN LAGOS: INSIGHT FROM A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS A. F. Oni 1 and O. Babatola 2 1 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos 2 Department of Geography, University of Lagos Correspondence: obabatola@unilag.edu.ng Abstract The convergence of two related issues which impact negatively on the metropolis’ residential sub-stock motivated this paper. Employing the purposive and random sampling techniques respectively to select its samples from the existing building stock in metropolitan Lagos, the paper compares models of building-use conversion in the metropolis. The study’s questionnaire elicits information among others, on the physical design and selected socio - cultural attributes of individual buildings, including their use-conversion record. The major relevant questions answered by the paper include: To what extent is the current housing stock in Lagos metropolis differentiated by their design and cultural attributes among its classifiable urban regions; what is the magnitude and pattern of use-conversion experienced by the present housing stock in Lagos; and finally, what degree of convergence characterizes hypothesized models of building-use conversion which employs different spatial organizational conceptions of the metropolis. Findings among others reflect varied degrees of convergence and divergence in the selected buildings’ attributes among metropolitan regions; differences in the degree of use-conversion that is negatively inclined against the residential housing stock, and differences among the models of building-use conversion that offer insight for improving on the effectiveness of physical development monitoring activity in the metropolis; as well as extending the existing perspective of research to the question of use-conversion. Keywords: Lagos, logit models, metropolitan regions, residential stock, use-conversion Introduction A convergence of specific but related issues on housing in metropolitan Lagos, which impact negatively on its residential sub-stock motivated this paper. The first is the insufficiency of the housing stock over the years as attested to by a number of scholars (Oduwaye, 1998; Nubi, 2002 & 2008; Aluko, 2002 and Amao and Ilesanmi, 2013). The insufficiency has been ascribed to the ever-expanding streams of immigrants flowing into the metropolis from all the other regions in Nigeria, including the South-West to which Lagos itself belongs. The phenomenal immigration automatically revs up the demand for different housing needs which supersedes housing production rate in the metropolis. This unmet need in the overall demand of the housing commodity has generated different responses. On its part, successive governments in Lagos have been making effort to increase the stock of residential houses through a number of partially or wholly-financed housing programmes. The effect of these interventions so far has been very negligible, primarily for two major reasons. One, there are many other departments such as health and education which are competing with housing for government investment attention. Two, the rate at which physical development is occurring along the metropolitan frontiers appears to be posing serious challenges to the metropolitan development-monitoring agency. The agency’s response to the situation portrays more of helplessness than innovative thinking; and threatening to undermine the realization of the fundamental objective which originally informed the establishment of metropolitan development planning and control. The role and influence of private property developers seem to contrast significantly with that of the government. To start with, this group has consistently been the major stakeholder over the years in terms of the quantum of property developed for different uses in Lagos. Nubi’s (2008) paper explains the basis of this dominance. The motive of private developers, especially those who build primarily for rental purpose, is purely economic (Aina, 1990). Many in this category engage in speculative development of properties in different parts of the metropolis. Generally, only a negligible percentage