Socioeconomic and Demographic Predictors of Residential Satisfaction within Public Housing Estates in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined relationships between residential satisfaction, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of residents to address the dearth of user input proffered as a major reason for failure of public housing delivery in Nigeria. Results from a survey of 178 respondents across eight selected public housing estates in Northern Nigeria analysed in SPSS v.24 through descriptive statistics, Pearson chisquare correlations and logistic regression reveal that length of stay (p=0.001) and marital status (p=0.006) significantly associate with residential satisfaction. Monthly income, length of stay and marital status emerged as significant predictors of residential satisfaction (p<0.05). The odds of residential satisfaction increasing is higher among residents who earn monthly incomes above 100,000 NGN (OR=2.422), have lived within the estates for more than 10 years (OR=2.288), accommodate household sizes of 4-6 persons (OR=1.279) within units containing more than 3 bedrooms (OR=1.346) which are owner-occupied (OR=1.118). Contrarily, residential satisfaction decreases if respondents are male, married, aged 30 years and above with large families of more than six persons. The study concludes that demographic profiling of residents is useful in the planning of future public housing developments and projections of support infrastructure. Consequently, updated employee databases ought to be a priority especially in government ministries, departments and agencies. Policies of providing 2-3 bedroom units also require revision as well as flexible plans, which allow for extensions to houses especially increasing the number of bedrooms by residents in future.