The effects of residential environmental factors on residents’ housing satisfaction in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study highlights the effects of residential environments on residents’ housing satisfaction in Ogun State. The research site consists of residential areas of the selected Local Government headquarters of Ogun state, Nigeria, with 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs). The paper adopted mixed research approach. Data were collected through structured questionnaire. Using an average household size of five as established by National Bureau of Statistics final report of (2007), and the number of buildings in each of the selected communities, a total of five thousand, two hundred and seventeen (5217) copies of questionnaires were derived. However, four thousand six hundred and ninety-one (4691) were retrieved for analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were used for the analysis. The study reveals that all environmental variables used in predicting respondents housing satisfaction in the study area were significant with P≤0.05. It was further  revealed that the most important environmental variable explaining housing satisfaction in the study area is the perception of respondents about the feeling of their neighbourhood (COP) explaining 37.3% of variance in the dependent variable. The implication of the findings is that the neighbourhood social environment and community services aspects of residential environments were positively related to housing satisfaction.  The results of this study supported the importance of community involvement at the neighbourhood level. The study recommends that in housing development, the social and physical environmental attributes must be considered when providing housing for the people, be it public or real estate investors.