1.1 Introduction
Today, in our contemporary society it is often a strenuous thing for students to embark on a sa place to live, because of this, a lot of student settle for apartments which doesn’t suit their need or are compelled to stay with other students to avoid going on house hunts, which can be very discomforting. This problem is most experienced by new students; however, the old student is not exempted. Although the goal of this project has been established around the world, and even in Nigeria, there has not been one carried out for the off-campus environment in Nigeria. However, the off-campus accommodation issues are caused by lack of town planning in the surrounding campus environment as buildings meant for student tenants are scattered around, with no sort of arrangement whatsoever. For the sake of this study, the Nekede community, Imo state, Nigeria, will be used as a case study to design a student apartment directory system. This particular case study has a lot of issues to deal with because of the versatile nature of the off-campus environment, the wide variation of the types of apartment in this area and the variations in the infrastructure and the cost of these apartments.
1.2 Background of Study
Renting an apartment can generally be so stressful, real estate businesses usually have agents whose work is to help potential tenants find their dream homes at locations of their choice, but in the Nigeria system, the real estate business agents are usually not found in areas where tertiary institutions are located. These areas are characterized by a dense population of students who are in search of accommodation around the off-campus premises. Real estate agents would have great markets in these areas, but sadly, the stress they would undergo and other issues they face, such as low profit and others, have brought about their little attention or, most times, their absence in such areas. Considering the absence of real estate agents in off-campus areas, and the dispersed areas where students settle, the large range of varying taste of accommodation and their financial capability, it will be of great help to establish a working system to accommodate the needs and breach the gap between students and their dream apartment, while taking out the stress and the time they spend to afford this on their own, in exchange for financial gain.
Currently Student search for an apartment walking around the community where there is new and old apartment in search of a vacant accommodation, mostly during the end and the beginning of the year, these manual process of finding an apartment close to the school area is so stressful , some student might not be able to afford the money to pay for an accommodation in the new apartments and there might be vacant accommodation spaces in the old building but due to the location and lack of getting adequate information about the particular apartment they tend to overlook it, to overcome these challenges student face in getting an accommodation there’s need to create a system that will eliminate the challenges.
Considering the technological advances made in our communities and the fact that the students have better online accessibility, it will be considered a great innovation to establish an online platform where they can source for their dream apartment, with reference to their financial power and the location they would like to dwell in.
The project would act as a real estate agent for the student, particularly for the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede students in Imo state, as it will be based on the environment surrounding the institution (Nekede) and the students Apartment around that locality. With this project, the problem of students moving from one apartment to another, searching for one to suit their taste and their convenience would be overcome, it will enable students to search for online apartments online based on the location they would like to settle in, the price of apartment they can afford and the quality/security they want in an apartment. Lastly, the student would get a trusted and legible payment system since they get to have the contacts of the landlord or faculty manager. This project will ease off the stress students encounter when looking for a comfortable apartment off-campus.
1.3 Statement of problems
The major difficulties encountered as review by the study include;
- Students go through stress and time-consuming process of walking around the community searching for a vacant and suitable apartment.
- Some people pose as caretakers which they are not in some apartment, through this processes dupe students of their money.
- Student spends more money on transportation and also on paying Apartment agents who promise to assist them in finding a comfortable apartment.
- Many landlords have a new apartment but do not have the medium of advertising their apartment.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of this project is to create and implement a web-based student's rental platform. The new system will achieve the following objectives.
- It will help the students find the desired apartment from the comfort of their home with just any internet-enabled device.
- Students will be safe from fraudsters and its psychological effects.
- Students will save more money as will not be any need to hire the services of Apartment agents, and transportation
- Students will be privileged enough to choose from many alternatives.
- Landlords who find it difficult to attract the attention of apartment seekers will now be able to reach out to their potential tenants and advertise their building online.
1.5 Significance of the Study
When this project work is fully implemented, it will reduce the burden students leaving off-campus in terms of searching for accommodation, thus making students big beneficiaries of this project. Besides the platform will help the Landlords who find it challenging to attract the attention of apartment seekers as they will now be able to reach out to their potential tenants and advertise their apartment even in their absence.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The scope of study will cover house for rent within Umuerim community down to the school gate.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
The limitation encountered during the cause of this study includes;
- Financial constraint: A lot of money are involved in visiting the different location where student rental apartments are found off-campus to get snapshots of these apartments and their accurate site successfully without mixing them up. Based on that the scope was reduced.
- Time constraint: Due to the large coverage area of this project, it was quite tedious, time consuming and stressful to successfully survey all student rental apartment within hence the work was limited to Umuerim Nekede.
1.8 Definitions of Technical Terms
Apartments: A room or set of rooms fitted especially with housekeeping facilities and usually leased as a dwelling.
Accommodation: A place to live or stay for convenience, especially for students at school.
Rent: A fixed amount of money that you pay regularly for the use of a room that someone else owns.
Locations: A particular place or position.
Locality: an area or district considered as the site of certain activities; a neighborhood.
System: system is a combination or arrangement of parts to form an integrated whole. A system includes an orderly arrangement according to some common principles or rules.
