Prior to 1997, arbitrary rent increases, unlawful ejection of tenants, Lengthy and un-ending
Litigations between Landlords and tenants were rampant in Lagos State, Nigeria. This dictated
the intervention of Lagos State Government through the promulgation of the Rent Control
and Recovery of Residential Premises Edict, which stipulates, inter alia, specific method to
be adopted in determining residential property values. This research examines the statutory
method of detem1ining standard rent under the edict, and adopts the multiple-comparison
and analysis of variance techniques to determine the relationship between statutory and open
market rents. It discovers that rent control has no impacts on rental prqperty values in the
study area. It therefore concludes that government intervention through control of rent would
injure the urban poor it sets out to protect and recommends that government should hands off
control of rent on houses government has not produce
