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Construction projects have huge impacts on the social sustainability of the neighbouring community. The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand the key factors of a construction project that contribute to the social sustainability of a neighbourhood.

Questionnaire surveys relating to two case studies of regeneration projects in Saudi Arabia were carried out to ascertain and analyse the perceptions of residents of the neighbourhood communities in which the projects were built.

The results derived from factor analysis suggested five significant underlying social factors: health and physical comfort, accessibility, integration, economy and participation. These are defined as the core social functions necessary for enhancing social sustainability in the neighbourhood community as a result of new construction.

Ideally, a construction project will create spaces where people can interact socially, develop a sense of community and grow and prosper. This study reveals how the neighbours of the project felt about it and what sort of input they wanted to have in the design, construction and operation of the facility. For developers emphasising sustainability, this is the essential data.

This paper aims to propose a framework that puts the stakeholders at the forefront of achieving sustainability in the social context. This research, thus, argues that the social sustainability outcomes in construction are best achieved by taking into account the satisfactions of the stakeholders.

Based on sustainability and equity theories, a dynamic assessment model has been developed to evaluate the contributions of projects in a social context. Multiple stakeholders and their differing interests associated with the construction projects have been integrated using social network analysis. The mapping of the relationships between the project stakeholders, with respect to their relative stakes and seven social core functions, have been integrated in the assessment model.

The findings of this research suggest that the degree of satisfying the needs of diverse stakeholders is highly significant in achieving social sustainability performance of projects. Using a case study from Saudi Arabia, the applicability and significance of the assessment model has been demonstrated. The application of the model provides the opportunity to identify any problems and to enhance the overall performance of projects in the social context.

The functionality and efficacy of the model need to be further tested outside the Saudi Arabian region.

The research is original in the sense that for the first time, a novel approach has been developed, putting the stakeholders at the forefront of achieving sustainability outcomes in construction projects.