The purpose of this study is to investigate the possible relationship between social mix and the quality of life in housing. Quality of life is measured by levels of satisfaction, social integration, mobility and freedom of choice, etc. This study has identified some factors which may have an effect on the quality of life in socially mixed housing projects. This study has formulated general observations from these factors which could influence the way the built environment is shaped, especially ways in which residents, can or cannot, appreciate and tolerate social mix. The evidence indicates that design, quality of construction, good management, and the overall environment are much more important for the acceptance and satisfaction of the residents than the question of social mix. Even so, the findings indicate that some of the positive and negative quality of life aspects derive from social mix.

No description available.

D.Phil. (Engineering Management) / One of the greatest challenges faced by the post-1994 South African democratic government is an immense backlog and shortage of housing for poverty-stricken South Africans. Since 1994, the government has embarked on aspiring housing programmes in order to engage in mass delivery of housing, which was done to fulfill the vision of adequate housing for all, as reflected in the South African National Housing Policy Framework. Over the last seventeen years, the programmes have delivered more than 3 million houses to families, who had no proper housing previously, providing more than 13 million people with secure homes; thus ensuring that essential services were made available to advance the lives of ordinary people. This research investigated and modeled subsidised low-income resident’s satisfaction. The primary aim of the research was to model to what extent dwelling unit features, neighbourhood features, building quality, services provided by government, beneficiary participation, needs and expectations predict the occupants’ residential satisfaction, which were classified as the exogenous variables. A conceptual integrated holistic residential satisfaction model was developed based on the theory developed from the literature review and the Delphi Study findings. The Questionnaire Survey was conducted for the purpose of validating the conceptual model. The survey was conducted in three metropolitan municipalities and one district municipality in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Results from the investigation pertained to three broad areas. The first results related to theory on housing studies. The findings were that the study addressed the lack of theoretical information about which factors are most significant in predicting resident satisfaction in subsidised low-income housing. The findings also revealed the theory that low-income housing occupants’ satisfaction is multi-faceted and that the latent variables thus lead to residential satisfaction outcome variables which could be used for residential satisfaction measurement. The second set of findings relates to the Delphi Study. The findings from this study were that a number of factors (dwelling unit features, neighbourhood features amongst others), considered to be paramount determinants of residential satisfaction in South Africa low-income housing are similar to the determinants in other cultural contexts. Further findings from literature and the Delphi Study indicated that subsidised low-income housing residential satisfaction could be a six-factor model defined by the influence of dwelling unit features...

This dissertation compares the levels of housing satisfaction between the site and services and informal settlement upgrading projects. In South Africa, the government embarked on the incremental approach to housing as a way of addressing housing challenges such as slow delivery rate, poverty and budgetary constraints. Within incremental housing polices, site and services and informal settlement upgrading housing projects are two housing delivery methods that are being used to provide housing to low income households. One of the challenges with the implementation of incremental housing delivery method in South Africa has been over-emphasis on the implementation of site and services at the expense of informal settlement upgrading housing projects. The broad aim of this dissertation is to compare which of the two delivery approaches yields higher levels of satisfaction. The research method employed in the study was Normative Style of comparism which is used to compare the levels of satisfaction and usefulness of housing to the user. To evaluate the levels of housing satisfaction between the site and services and informal settlement upgrading, the researcher set indicators of housing satisfaction, specifically location, the size of the dwelling unit, the quality of building materials, residential quality, security of tenure and the ability to use a house for income generating opportunities. Polices such as Chapter 13 of the National Housing Code (2009) and the Breaking New Ground (2004) indicate a significant shift in respect of informal settlement upgrading. The study’s findings showed that there are higher levels of housing satisfaction in the informal settlement upgrading housing projects than in the site and services because, beneficiaries make conscious choices about where to locate their housing. It emerged that beneficiaries satisfaction with the choice of specific settlements was usually linked to their livelihood strategies for example, proximity to jobs, cost of transport and cost of living. Such satisfaction was not forthcoming in poorly located sites and services schemes, whose strength was therefore only on their formality, secure tenure and basic services. The contribution of this study is not only to highlight circumstances that make housing satisfactory but also to ensure that informal settlements upgrading becomes entirely practiced on an equal basis as site and services. / Thesis (M.Housing)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

This study analyzes the determinants of housing environmental preference by consumers in Guangzhou, China. Preferences of different housing environments have been well researched by scholars in architecture, urban planning, and urban environmental science. However, few studies shed light on housing environment by measuring physical/tangible and social/intangible attributes with hierarchy models. Based on the literatures on housing environment, preference, satisfaction and housing quality, this thesis explores the housing environment preference by identifying the environmental attributes which are grouped into three categories: mobility, community facility, and community social capital. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed to estimate the relative importance of those environmental attributes, which are further organized into a hierarchical structure. Housing consumers and property experts in Guangzhou participate in the survey and they represent a wide spectrum of environmental performance demands as well as socio-environmental backgrounds in the sample. Statistical weights of the factors based on their judgments are then generated. It is found that mobility factors, including public traffic network, proximity to workplace, have dominant importance in the housing environment. Social capital factors and facility factors, including sense of safety, medical and health facility, and education facility are also regarded important. Property experts and consumers have diverse perspectives on the demand of end users as they represent different interest groups. Furthermore, different age groups of housing consumers attach different relative importance to the factors studied. This study develops a method to assess the relative importance of the environment factors in housing preferences, and provides a useful tool in the field of environmental assessment. Instead of measuring the monetary value of different attributes in the market, the findings of this thesis help to understand the general demand pattern and preferences of consumers in the housing market based on multidimensional values and benefits. It is hoped that the findings will offer more information for urban planners and housing developers from a social and cultural perspective. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

In an attempt to improve the quality of lives of its citizens, the South African government has introduced low-cost housing projects through the Reconstruction and Development Programme. This is supported by the relevant policy framework and the Constitution. Many historically disadvantaged communities in the urban areas have benefitted from the low-cost housing programmes initiated by government. The community of Joe Slovo, which has houses which were built between 2008 and 2010, in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is one of them. However, concerns about the poor quality of some of the houses delivered through government’s low-cost housing programmes have been expressed. These concerns were attributed to the defects which tend to show up in some of the houses, shortly after they have been built. In view of such concerns and the importance of the optimal utilization of the country’s limited resources, the author decided to undertake this study. In this study he focused on the perceptions of the beneficiaries of the houses delivered through the Joe Slovo housing project in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The main focus was on the perceptions about the quality of the recently acquired houses. The study revealed that not all beneficiaries were satisfied with the quality of their houses. Hence recommendations for addressing this scenario are made.

The purpose of the study was to develop a methodology for evaluating the livability of single-family houses and to test it on conventional and prototypical house types. The House Plan Evaluation Checklist and the Housing Satisfaction Scale were developed and analyzed for content validity using the responses of randomly selected housing professionals. Once the instrumsnts were revised they were used to evaluate the Benchmark house type (FmHA plan no. H5-41) and the Solar Attic house type (Cooperative Extension Plan Service experimental plan no. 7220). A randomly selected sample of 32 housing professionals evaluated the plans of these houses using the Hause Plan Evaluation Checklist. They rated the Solar Attic plan significantly higher on five of ten subscales. All of the subscales of the House Plan Evaluation Checklist had high inter-rater reliability when used by the housing professionals to rate the Benchmark house and the majority of the subscales also had high inter-rater reliability when used to rate the Solar Attic plan. The Housing Satisfaction Scale and an interview schedule were used with samples of 15 Benchmark and 15 Solar Attic residents to obtain information about their housing satisfaction and demographic, housing, and energy characteristics. The Solar Attic residents rated their satisfaction with their housing significantly higher than the Benchmark residents on five of 13 Housing Satisfaction subscales. The Benchmark residents had significantly more female heads of households, less educated heads of households, and lower income households. Their housing was older, smaller and the residents had lived there longer. They used more electrical energy, although their housing had many of the same energy-saving features as the Solar Attic houses. The subscales of the Housing Satisfaction Scale had inconsistent inter-rater reliability when used by the residents of both house types to rate their satisfaction, but they had high internal consistency reliability ratings on all but the Cost subscale. / Ph. D.

Housing competes with other basic necessities for the limited resources of a society. Social policy reflects the priority placed on these basic needs by the state as well as citizens. The purpose of this study is to examine citizen housing solution preferences and explore how these preferences can be used to create more effective housing policies. In this research, informants focused on three housing solutions: 1) complete state provision, 2) complete free market provision, or 3) a combination of limited state assistance with community participation. My case studies of Esperanza Andina, Chile and Cayo Hueso, Cuba investigate the resident's views on the roles of the state, the market and citizens for housing provision and attainment through unstructured interviews. Despite having two different political economies, the residents in both of these communities preferred a mixture of state assistance and community participation for their housing solution. The finding of this study reinforces some of the most recent literature on the importance and effective results of community participation. In Chile, sixteen years of authoritarian rule hampered a strong history of citizen action for social needs. With a return to electoral democracy in 1990, citizens in Esperanza Andina are organizing more effectively to participate in the fulfillment of their housing needs and preferences. In Cuba, Castro's centralized Socialist government has allowed little citizen input to influence the provision of overall social needs. However, citizens in Cayo Hueso are organizing to represent and fulfill their own housing needs and preferences. / Master of Urban Affairs

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning