Residential Satisfaction and Housing Policy Evolution

Clinton Aigbavboa, Wellington Thwala

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351012652
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

This book explores residential satisfaction and housing policy trends in developing nations by using subsidised low-income housing examples in South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria as case studies. While there has been much documentation on the formation of residential satisfaction and the evolution of housing policy in developed nations, relatively little has been written about these topics in developing nations.

This book provides readers with two major practical insights: The first is focused on the theoretical underpinning of residential satisfaction and the formation of residential satisfaction in subsidised low-income housing through the development of a conceptual framework, while the second is focused on housing policy evolution and its trends in South Africa. In this section of the book, comparative overviews of public housing in two West African countries are provided with an emphasis on the philosophical basis for its development in these countries. The central aim of the book is to provide readers with ideas on residential satisfaction formation and housing policy trends in South Africa.

Part I

The fundamentals

Part I presents the fundamentals of the book. This part, which contains Chapter 1 of the book, is designed to give a quick overview of what this book is all about.

1 Introduction

Introduction

Residential satisfaction has been a major theme of discussion in various disciplines such as sociology, psychology, planning and geography (Marans & Rodgers, 1975; Galster & Hesser, 1981; Canter & Rees, 1982; Cutter, 1982; Weidemann & Anderson, 1985; Baillie & Peart, 1992; Nathan, 1995; Bruin & Cook, 1997). The focus of most of the social psychology scholars who have dominated satisfaction research varies from consumer satisfaction to job satisfaction to patient satisfaction (Yiping, 2005). An understanding of people’s satisfactory evaluation of a product or a service is believed to be useful. Feedback could be identified and implemented to bring about improvements, which will increase the effectiveness of the product or service. As such, residential satisfaction research deals with the occupants’ satisfaction of their housing units, and aims to inform public policy and planning intervention for future housing units to be developed.

Residential satisfaction describes the perceived gap between housing occupants’ needs and aspirations and the reality of their current residential contexts (Galster, 1987). Housing satisfaction is also described as the degree of contentment experienced by an individual or a family member with regard to the current housing situation. Because of its subjective nature, housing satisfaction is termed a complex attitude (McCray & Day, 1977; Satsangi & Kearns, 1992; Lu, 1999). Residential satisfaction encompasses satisfaction with the dwelling unit and the entire neighbourhood, which is often employed to evaluate residents’ perceptions of and feelings for their housing units and the environment (Onibokun, 1974; Ogu, 2002). The concept of housing satisfaction has also been used as a key predictor of an individual’s perceptions of general ‘quality of life’ (Campbell, Converse & Rogers, 1976; Djebuarni & Al-Abed, 2000), while psychology scholars (Andrews & Whitney, 1976; Morris, Crull & Winter, 1976; Diaz-Serrano, 2006; Kleinhans, 2007) have affirmed that residents’ perception of their environment defines the quality of their lives and most times determines their propensity to move to a new location. Hence, this book explores residential satisfaction and housing policy trends in developing nations with a special focus on South African housing development. While there has been much documentation on the formation of residential satisfaction in other housing topologies in the developed nations and the housing policy evolution as evident in the body of knowledge, relatively little has been written about the formation of residential satisfaction for the developing nation’s low-income housing and the evolution of housing policy. Very few reference books have been written about the developing nations (especially African cities) even though Africa is the current hotbed of residential housing development. This book also presents a thorough background on residential theories and its formation.

The book is divided into four parts and eight chapters for guidance and ease of use. Part I consists of a chapter detailing the background information for the book with a contextual underpinning of the subject matter of the book followed by an understanding of the issues of housing adequacy. The subject of housing theories and policy development themes are discussed in Part II of the book. The second part of the book describes a generic overview of housing theories, theoretical perspectives on housing study, methodological issues with housing studies and policy development. This section of the book is further sub-divided into two chapters, namely: theoretical perspectives of housing studies research and housing policy evolution development. Part III of the book presents housing policy and development in two West African countries (Ghana and Nigeria) and one Southern African country – South Africa; three chapters have been allocated to deal with this concept. The first and second chapters in this section address housing demand and supply in both Ghana and Nigeria with an emphasis on the philosophical basis for housing development and the challenges facing housing developments. The third chapter in Part III is devoted to housing in South Africa with an extensive discussion on the evolution of its housing policy, housing policy progress in South Africa, programmes supporting housing developments in South Africa and the challenges of housing backlog in the country. This part addresses the second aim of the book, which is focused on a robust understanding of housing evolutions and its trends in South Africa and other African countries. Part IV of the book consists of two chapters that relate specifically to residential satisfaction theories and research. The chapters in this part discuss the theoretical and conceptual perspectives of residential satisfaction studies, thus addressing the first focus of the book, which speaks to the theoretical underpinning of residential satisfaction and the formation of residential satisfaction in housing through the development of a conceptual framework.

Overall, this housing research book provides readers with two major practical insights: the first is focused on the theoretical underpinning of residential satisfaction and the formation of residential satisfaction in subsidized low-income housing through the development of a conceptual framework, while the second is focused on housing evolutions and its trends in South Africa and other African countries. In this section of the book, a comparative overview on public housing in two West African countries is further provided with an emphasis on the philosophical basis for housing development in these countries. Generally, the central aim of the book is to provide readers with ideas on residential satisfaction formation and its achievement and housing policy trends to date in South Africa and in other African countries.

Understanding residential satisfaction

The motivation for the interest and popularity of residential satisfaction is twofold. First, residential satisfaction is recognized as an important component of an individuals’ general quality of life; meaning that for most people, housing is the largest consumption item in their lifetime. Second, a home is the place where one most often finds refuge, rest and satisfaction. This means that the degree to which an individual’s needs and aspirations are met by their housing condition is a concern for researchers but most importantly for housing developers, planners and specifically for housing policy-makers. This is because housing policy-makers in different national states are vested with the responsibility of policy formulation and implementation of housing delivery programmes for different groups in the society at large, and most especially for the low-income groups who have less opportunity to support and meet their housing needs. In housing programmes targeting the low-income groups, measures of residential satisfaction provide insights regarding occupants’ experience of their housing, and these can be used to evaluate the success of the programmes devoted to housing delivery and set the tone for future developments.

Further, individuals’ subjective evaluations of their housing determine the way they respond to the residential environment and form the basis of demand for public action (Dahmann, 1985; Nathan, 1995). In ‘behavioral conceptualization’ of migration, low levels of residential satisfaction precede housing and mobility behaviour (Speare, 1974). That is, when individuals feel dissatisfied with their current housing situation, they sometimes consider relocating and sometimes actually move to a different unit or location. However, Rory, Maarten and Peteke (2010), in their work on longitudinal analysis of moving desires, expectations and actual moving behaviour, revealed that housing dissatisfaction, and especially dissatisfaction with the neighbourhood, strongly increases the propensity to desire a move but not to expect a move, and also the propensity to desire and expect a move. However, other research works have found that dissatisfaction has a much smaller effect on expecting an undesired move. Hence housing dissatisfaction is closely associated with moving desires, but not with moving expectations, except when expectations are simultaneously stated with a desire.

Despite a sizeable amount of literature that has developed in this field, an understanding of how individuals form their residential satisfaction is still inadequate. An obvious sign of this inadequacy is the existence of inconsistent, sometimes even conflicting, research results about the factors that shape the residents’ level of satisfaction with their housing and neighbourhood. This may be as a result of the differences in samples; most samples are not representative of the population being investigated and the way the key variables were defined, but it may also be because of how the data were analysed. This book is determined to present a robust theoretical perspective that should be considered in the construction of a better understanding of the variables that determine housing satisfaction.

The study of residential satisfaction in developed nations was fostered by two phenomena. The first is the post-war housing boom of the 1950s/early 1960s and the new residential environment through growth of suburban development (Campbell, Converse & Rogers, 1976). Second is the plight of central city residents under the active programme of slum clearance and central city rebuilding. Likewise, urban development in developed countries over the years is similar to the low-income and the large-scale inner-city redevelopment currently taking place in cities such as Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town among others in South Africa and in other developing nations such as Lagos in Nigeria and Accra in Ghana. This has also fostered the increase in the study of how residential satisfaction is created in developing countries. There has been much discussion about residents’ satisfaction in South Africa and in other developing economies, but the majority has centred on measuring residents’ satisfaction in the informal settlement areas and privately owned low-income estates. Only a few studies have been done with regard to subsidized low-income schemes, with the major focus of the research being done on the post-occupancy evaluation of the residences, where residential satisfaction was treated as a sub-objective evaluation in these studies (Ria & Bontle, 2004; Darkwa, 2006; Aigbavboa, 2010). Also, the work of Westaway (2006) on the longitudinal investigation of satisfaction in a Soweto informal settlement (South Africa) was focused on the effect of satisfaction with personal and environmental quality of life. The study ascertained the group and time effects on satisfaction with personal and environmental domains of quality of life, and, likewise, determined personal and environmental predictors of life and neighbourhood satisfaction in the informal settlement. From the longitudinal study, it was found that the group from the squatter camp had the lowest levels of satisfaction with their personal and environmental quality of life. The group was found to be the most disadvantaged in this regard, when compared with the relocated, the awaiting relocation and the site tenure allocated groups.

Furthermore, Robin, Brian and Kingstone (2007) also measured the quality of life in three informal settlements in South Africa. In their work, they focused on the factors that are most important in improving the quality of life of residents in informal housing, as well as the main obstacles to a better quality of life. Likewise, Møller and Saris (2001) in their work on the relationship between subjective well-being and domain satisfaction in South Africa explored the effect of domain satisfaction on finances, housing and social contrast in relation with the developed countries. However, Ria and Bontle (2004). in their work on the post-occupancy evaluation of the Hope City Housing Complex (a private low-income housing estate), found that the residents of the housing estates were satisfied with the facilities in the dwelling units, the complex and the management components of the estate. Despite the residents being satisfied with their overall housing situations, it was observed that females were less satisfied than males. Regardless of the number of studies that have been conducted in this arena, there is a limited and comprehensive synchronization of literature on the theoretical perspective for the formation of residential satisfaction and the development of housing policy evaluation in Africa. This book hopes to fill the gap in this area.

Housing occupants’ responses to residential satisfaction

Housing occupants responses that determine residential satisfaction towards a given housing situation have been a subject of dispute over time among many researchers. Social psychologists generally categorize people’s responses to any social or physical object into three groups: the affective; the cognitive; and the conative/behavioral. Affective refers to a person’s feeling towards and evaluation of some object, person, issue or event. The cognitive denotes his or her knowledge, opinions, beliefs and thoughts about the object. Lastly, conative refers to his or her behavioral intentions and actions with respect to or in the presence of the object. These three categories provide a useful framework in understanding and testing the theoretical development underpinning residential satisfaction research (Francescato, Weidemann & Anderson, 1987; Weidemann & Anderson, 1985). These categories also provide an understanding of the relationships between objective conditions, subjective experiences and the residents’ level of satisfaction with their living environments. As a result, residential satisfaction is not only used as an indicator in evaluating housing policies, but also as a predictor of housing quality, propensity to mobility and the quality of life and well-being of the residents. High residential satisfaction levels have been considered an indication of the success of specific policies, programmes or designs. Hence, an understanding of the factors that facilitate a satisfied or dissatisfied response can play a critical part in making successful housing policy decisions.

Furthermore, there is no consensus about what type of evaluation residential satisfaction falls under. While some authors conceive residential satisfaction as a purely cognitive evaluation (Canter & Rees, 1982; Mandler, 1984; Oseland, 1990), others have held that it is affective (Weidemann & Anderson, 1985). However, authors such as Francescato, Weidemann and Anderson (1989) do not think that evaluation such as satisfaction can be neatly separated into cognition or affect. In addition, satisfaction studies have been approached from two main perspectives over time, namely satisfaction as a measure of the degree to which the environment facilitates or inhabits the goal of the user, called the purposive approach (Canter & Rees, 1982; Oseland, 1990), and those perspectives that conceive of satisfaction as a measure of the gap between consumers’ actual and aspired needs, called the aspiration-gap approach (Galster, 1987). The implication of the purposive approach is that there is emphasis on goals or associated activities in relation to the attributes of the physical environment. This approach is entrenched in a cognitive view. However, it is useful because it assists researchers in understanding the degree to which different aspects and roles of users contribute to their satisfaction. In addition, people are not only goal-oriented but also they have affective relationships with the environment (or any psychological object), usually involving comparisons. This is the comparison between what the beneficiaries have and what they would like to have or have previously experienced. This is the proposition on which the aspiration-gap methodology is based and the more common conceptual frameworks of residential satisfaction (Galster, 1987; Morris & Winter, 1975; Weidemann & Anderson, 1985) have all conceived of residential satisfaction from this perspective. In their housing adjustment theory of residential mobility, Morris and Jakubczak (1988), theorize that individuals judge their housing condition according to normatively defined values, which are dictated by societal standards or rules for life conditions, and family/personal norms, which relate to a household’s own standards for housing. This means that, on the one hand, when the housing norms are met, the household is likely to express a high level of satisfaction with the housing and the surrounding neighbourhood. On the other hand, an incongruity between the actual housing situation and housing norms results in a housing deficit, which gives rise to residential dissatisfaction, leading to some form of housing adjustments that may be either in situ, such as revising their housing needs and aspirations in order to reconcile the incongruity or to improve their housing conditions through remodelling, or else the residents may move to another place to bring their housing into conformity with their aspirations and needs (Morris & Winter, 1978). This concept is commonly known as the notion of ‘housing deficit’, which conceptualizes residential satisfaction as a dynamic process.

A more vigorous view of residential satisfaction is the conceptualization of residential satisfacti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of abbreviations
• Preface
• PART I: The fundamentals
• PART II: Housing theories and policy development
• PART III: Housing policy and development in Africa
• PART IV: Residential satisfaction theories and research
• Index