Housing satisfaction perceived by the residents of Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) Sungai Bonus in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur

Abstract

Housing satisfaction is defined as the feeling of contentment when one has or achieves what one needs or desire in a house. Satisfaction has been used for measuring the success of housing developments, indicator of residential mobility, and hence of changing housing demands. This study investigates the house space, housing services, availability of public facilities and social environment which affects satisfaction levels as perceived by the residents of Sungai Bonus Public Housing Project or Projek Perumahan Rakyat Sungai Bonus in Kuala Lumpur. The housing was built during the Eighth Malaysia Plan under the public low-cost housing programme with intention to rehouse squatters as well as for the low income city community. The data was collected from 102 households living in the high rise low-cost housing project built by the Federal Government and managed by Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL). Stratified random sampling was the method used in data collection through the distribution of questionnaires and complemented with structured interviews. Descriptive and cross-tabular analyses were applied to the data. Pearson’s Chi-square and Spearman rank correlation coefficient statistics were also used on the data. The findings of the study indicate that a majority of residents were satisfied with the overall housing. Nevertheless, the survey results indicate that the levels of housing satisfaction were generally high with house space and services but low with the available facilities and social environment. Only a few aspects of house space show low satisfaction levels which includes size of kitchen and drying area. Low levels of satisfaction with the public facilities were due to inadequate numbers of playing courts, shops, car parking lots, poor condition of open space and motorcycle parking, small size of multi-purpose rooms and praying halls. Besides that the distance to various public facilities such as the light rail transit station, hospital, market, and library also indicate low satisfaction levels. The study has also identified that certain physical and social factors influence overall housing satisfaction. Improvements on the low satisfaction levels of the identified house factors which also influence overall housing satisfaction were recommended to enhance the residents’ living environment. This study implies that simply providing houses does not measure the success of housing programmes and policies but most importantly taking into account to fulfil the residents’ needs is essential for housing programmes to be successful.