<p>Housing is a fundamental human need that requires the attention of individuals, governments, and society at large. It measures people’s living standards in a country as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. This study, therefore, examines affordable housing challenges from the demand side by focussing on socio-cultural determinants of intention to access th<b>e&#xa0;</b>national housing mortgage among federal government employees in Lagos, Nigeria. Survey design and purposive sampling technique were employed, while data were collected from 205 respondents through a questionnaire. The three hypotheses formulated were tested employing the&#xa0;Structural Equation Model (SEM), using AMOS software version 23. The findings revealed that attitude towards mortgage has a&#xa0;significant influence on intention to access mortgage financing (<i>β</i> = 0.411; <i>t</i> = 6.939; <i>p</i> &lt; .05). Also, religiosity was found to have a&#xa0;significant positive influence on the&#xa0;intention to access mortgage financing (<i>β</i> = 0.288; <i>t</i> = 4.913; <i>p</i> &lt; .05). However, knowledge of mortgage had no significant influence on the&#xa0;intention to access mortgage financing (<i>β</i> = 0.109, <i>t</i> = 1.877; <i>p</i> &gt; .05). The study contributes to the national housing policy and the need to understand how socio-cultural variables influence intention to access mortgage financing, given that the challenges of providing affordable housing to Nigerian workers seem unabated despite successive government efforts. While scholars’ recommendations have focussed mainly on the supply side of affordable housing to help mitigate this challenge, this study turned attention to Nigerian Public sector workers’ socio-cultural aspect that has received little attention from research with a view to enhancing subsequent policies and programmes of affordable housing.</p>