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The purpose of this paper is to present research assessing the level of qualitative adequacy of newly constructed public housing in urban centres in Ogun State, Nigeria.

The study followed a quantitative research strategy. A survey of 517 housing units constructed through four different strategies and selected based on quota of their existence in nine public housing estates was conducted with a questionnaire as the key data collection instrument. A five‐point Likert scale was used in measuring the level of qualitative adequacy of four key housing sub‐components. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics.

Residents found the overall housing to be inadequate; they indicated that housing unit attributes were the most adequate and thus contributed most, while neighbourhood facilities were the least inadequate and contributed the least to qualitative housing adequacy.

The sample population comprised mainly house heads in public housing constructed between 2003 and 2009 therefore, the findings may not be considered to be applicable to all the public housing in the study area. However, the findings can form the basis for judging the performance of public housing in the current democratic dispensation in the study area.

The findings imply that giving adequate attention to the provision of infrastructural facilities and maintenance of existing ones can enhance the qualitative adequacy of public housing.

This paper is a pioneering effort at evaluating the qualitative adequacy of most recently constructed public housing in the study area.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the different preferences between property practitioners and residential consumers on housing prices in the Jakarta Metropolitan Region.

The Jakarta Metropolitan Region as the largest metropolitan city in Indonesia was selected as the main sample city for this study. This study comprises 134 respondents from property practitioners and 277 respondents from residential consumers. Data were collected from all regions in Jakarta Metropolitan Region and their respective satellite cities. Descriptive analysis, the correlation study, Wilcoxon t-test and principal component analysis were used to compare the findings between each group’s preferences on housing attributes.

The results of this research provide an analysis on the different decisive attributes for each group, disparities on the correlation between attributes in housing consumers and property practitioners and disagreements among each group on the attribute preferences influencing housing prices in the Jakarta Metropolitan Region.

In conclusion, the study provides valid and dependable evidence on different consumers and property practitioners attribute preferences for housing products in the Jakarta Metropolitan Region.

This research is the first to compare the attribute preferences for housing products between housing consumers and property practitioners in Indonesia. In addition, this study is one of the first to reaffirm preference attributes influencing housing product prices in Indonesia.

Meeting human needs is considered as fundamental to sustainable human settlement. However, in micro level developments particularly in respect of a housing unit, for example, an operational definition of sustainability which will be useful in its practical implementation, has yet to be developed. To address this, the author posits that theories on the relationship between the environment and the person can be taken as a conceptual frame of reference. One of them is the theory of Person-Environment Congruence (PEC). This theory conceptualizes “congruence” as the favourable outcome of the person-environment relationship. Achieving PEC is considered as the most important criteria that supports the concept of housing sustainability. In the context of housing, the author considers that PEC is achieved when the dwelling place can offer its inhabitants a place which meets their basic needs. In order to operationalize this concept in terms of housing unit design, the author propagates the use of the Means-End Chain (MEC) research model to explore the relationship between a person and his or her environment. The combination of the two concepts facilitates the identification of those housing attributes emphasized in the home-making process, together with the users' perceptual orientation towards those attributes. To experiment with the application of the MEC research model in respect of exploring the concept of PEC, a case study was conducted on 15 renovated and personalized houses in a mass housing scheme in Malaysia. The traditional MEC methods were maintained with some modifications to accommodate the various housing characteristics. The results suggest that the MEC research model is able to link the relevant housing unit attributes to user values, and it is potentially applicable in the design of a housing unit. The results also indicated that user participation is essential in home making process, in order to achieve and maintain sustainability.

This study aims to assess the satisfaction level of middle-income group (MIG) residents of government group housings of Kolkata, India. Further, a Composite Satisfaction Index (CSI) was also devised for assessing the satisfaction level.

The satisfaction level was assessed in three domains – “within premises”, “at neighbourhood” and “with cost” – incurred and questionnaires were designed to conduct primary survey. Question on overall level of satisfaction “with location” was also included. All satisfaction responses were recorded on a five-point Likert scale. Subsequently, a CSI – a weighted average of satisfaction for attribute “with location” and “with cost” – was devised. The weights were assigned through expert opinion survey using Delphi technique. Data being ordinal in nature, a two-step approach was adopted – initially through exploratory factor analysis, contributing attributes were identified and later a Generalised Ordered Logit Model was fitted in STATA. “Monetary benefits” were calculated as a difference of actual expenditure incurred from recommended expenditure towards regular transportation and housing. Mean satisfaction scores for attributes “with cost” were validated with “monetary benefits”.

Attribute “with cost” contributed significantly towards the overall level of satisfaction “with location”. The computed CSI values also comply with the findings, indicating the reliability of the index in similar contexts. The government group housing model was successful in its outreach towards the intended beneficiaries.

The CSI devised will help the MIG in identifying appropriate residential housing locations and enable policymakers in reviewing group housings.

Residential satisfaction studies were not specific to MIG residents considering attribute “with cost”. Hence, this study contributed to the existing knowledge in this specific context.

Providing operational approach to end-users' motivational tendencies in housing facilitates user-centered approach enhancing person-environment congruence. The operational approach is highly critical in case of inaccessibility of end-users in decision making, i.e. mass housing. Therefore, this study aims at explaining end-users' housing motivations from their housing attributes preferences, through a theoretical framework developed based on Maslow's theory. The investigation was carried out by using a self-administered questionnaire conducted on 127 Iranian postgraduate students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and their spouse who lived alongside them. They were selected from those who lived more than one year in mass housing apartments in Malaysia. Using exploratory factor analysis, the housing attributes preferences were analyzed to underlie the latent structure and relations among them; the extracted factors were also labeled based on the different level of needs. Then, conducting one sample t-test hierarchical tendencies among the different motivational factors were identified. Referring to Maslow's theory to explain the concept and characteristics of housing needs results in identification of two different categories of housing attributes in association with the different level of needs. Accordingly, primary levels of needs that associate with relatively tangible and concrete attributes are more likely to be content-specific and predictable. The higher levels of needs that associate with relatively complicated and abstract attributes are more likely to be problematical, confusing, and non-predictable.

The study of house prices has become more relevant in recent times after the global financial crisis. Using a housing data set from three regions of Ghana (collated from real estate agents), the purpose of this paper is to estimate the relative importance of housing attributes to house prices.

The hedonic regression analysis conducted indicates that location is the most powerful determinant of house prices. Other relevant factors are the number of bedrooms, the number of floors, the total floor area, land size, age of the house and luxury finishing.

The implications of these results are many. Policy wise, the study provides an evidence-based empirical study that supports the need for better urban planning to improve communities, which in turn is associated with house price appreciations. Homeowners, investors and creditors, particularly mortgage lenders could be the immediate beneficiaries. Drawing on this, improved urban planning could mitigate strategic defaults that results from house prices falling below mortgage loan balances. This is important for financial market stability.

The paper provides a comprehensive and unique understanding of the hedonic determinants of house prices in Ghana. Future studies could examine the effect of location upon mortgage lending in Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to provide affordable housing to low- and middle-income groups. The gravity of India’s housing affordability problem has led us to study and analyse the attributes hindering affordable housing for economically weaker section (EWS) and low-income group (LIG). The attributes such as viable parameters, economic parameters, location and communication, regulatory, source of finance, construction, services and infrastructure parameters affect the supply and demand of affordable housing in Indian urban areas for EWS and LIG with an annual household income below 2 lakhs.

The judgement sampling is used amongst housing and planning professionals working in five different sectors, including local authorities, housing developers, housing sectors, town planning and property/affordable housing consultant. The Analytical hierarchy process method of multi-criteria decision-making was used to analyse the data collected.

A detailed analysis of the data collected reveals that a viable parameter is the most governing attribute in the supply and demand process of developing affordable housing. Major reforms can be implemented at various levels of housing development in the urban area that can help in reducing the affordability gap for EWS/LIG. The suggested approach will be helpful for developers, urban planners and decision makers while designing an affordable housing project.

The model being proposed in this paper seeks for a proficient allotment of policies and assets, to some extent, by remedying the current market distortions and different inconsistencies that negatively influence the incentive structure of the affordable housing section in India. This paper offers a plan for a housing procedure that is applicable to all measurements of housing poverty and the groups that sustain it. In this way, the current study is, to a greater extent, a facilitator, and not an immediate solution of affordable housing.

Regarding the contribution of Australian small-size housing in the enhancement of total energy consumption of the country and the roles of the occupants’ preferences in successful implementation of action plans, the purpose of this study is to identify the Australian occupants’ collaborative image of housing energy efficiency. The two main objectives are, therefore, to address the main energy-related housing physical factors that have the potential in representing the housing image of Australian occupants and to explain the causal factors that make the physical factors critical to their energy efficiency perception.

This study has been developed through a qualitative approach. Given that the images encompass a wide range of information expressing human perceptions, an online photo-based qualitative survey was developed based on previous research works. The survey includes respondents’ demographic profiles and the evaluation of images, asking for their perception of overall housing energy efficiency, the impacts of building envelope physical attributes on the energy efficiency of the houses and the reasons behind the selection of different attributes.

This study has developed a set of attribute-based factors, explaining occupants’ collective perception of energy efficient small-size housing of Brisbane in the area of exterior aspects of the buildings. Specifically, the collaborative image of small-size housing of Brisbane is about the thermal performance of the buildings provided through passive climatic principles by using more efficient envelope features, e.g. material, colour, transparency, texture, openings, balconies and shadowing devices, while ignoring the impacts of architectural composition principles along neighbourhood quality. The key attributes in assessing the small-housing energy efficiency are ventilation, thermal performance and shadowing. The housing images in old traditional architectural style with rural face, built by stone, brick and concrete in high dense vegetation were evaluated to be more energy efficient than those with modern architecture, built by large glass panel and metal cladding with light or no vegetation.

The main limitation of the paper is related to the nature of an image-based survey, which leads to ignoring some aspects of real spaces such as odour, temperature and noise.

This research has the potential for developing a practical methodology for assessing housing-resident fit using computer-based methodology and neural networks.

This research has the potential for developing a methodology, assisting the end users in meeting their desires and motivations by helping them in assessing how a housing unit fits with their expectations and preferences.

This research provides a reliable conceptual platform for dealing with the complexity of occupants’ housing perceptions. This is achieved by establishing a collective conceptual picture of these environmental perceptions, namely, housing image, which is a platform for transferring abstract data related to human perception into measurable and quantitative scales.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and predict the housing prices in Petaling district, Malaysia and its six sub-regions with a set of housing attributes using functional relationship model.

A new multiple unreplicated linear functional relationship model with both the response and explanatory variables are subject to errors is proposed. A total of 41,750 housing transacted records from November 2008 to February 2016 were used in this study. These data were divided into 70% training and 30% testing sets for each of the selected sub-regions. Individual housing price was regressed on nine housing attributes.

The results showed the proposed model has better fitting ability and prediction accuracy as compared to the hedonic model or multiple linear regression. The proposed model achieved at least 20% and 40% of predictions that have less than 5% and 10% deviations from the actual transacted housing prices, respectively. House buyers in these sub-regions showed similar preferences on most of the housing attributes, except for residents in Shah Alam who preferred to stay far away from shopping malls, and leasehold houses in Sri Kembangan are more valuable. From the h-nearest houses indicator, it is concluded that the housing market in Sungai Buloh is the most volatile in Petaling District.

As the data used are the actual housing transaction records in Petaling District, it represents only a segment of Malaysian urban population. The result will not be generalized to the entire Malaysian population.

This study is expected to provide insights to policymakers, property developers and investors to understand the volatility of the housing market and the influence of determinants in different sub-regions. The potential house buyers could also use the model to determine if a house is overpriced.

This study introduces measurement errors into the housing attributes to provide a more reliable analysis tool for the housing market. This study is the first housing research in Malaysia that used a large number of actual housing transaction records. Previous studies relied on small survey samples.