Liveability of high rise affordable housing in Iskandar Malaysia

Abstract

It is important for a neighbourhood to provide a quality and good environment to ensure that inhabitants are able to live their lives in a satisfying way. There have been few attempts to investigate people?s perceptions about the places they currently live, especially what makes their neighbourhoods a good or bad place to live. Moreover, most studies on housing liveability seldom oversight one aspect of socioeconomic status or the other. However, socioeconomic status has been relegated and in most cases uses as a control variable and has not been properly explored. Thus, this study aims (1) to identify the important parameters determining the liveability of high-rise affordable housing and (2) to examine the relationship between socioeconomic and liveability of high-rise affordable housing in Iskandar Malaysia. A literature review found that six dimensions are used in most studies to understand the liveability issues: social, physical, utilities and services, public amenities and safety and security. Thirty four parameters are also identified to be indicators for the six dimensions. The study was conducted in Iskandar Malaysia, and data were collected using questionnaires survey. A total of 120 questionnaires were completed and returned, with the sampling error approximately ±8% at 90% confidence level. Results revealed that residents are most concerned about physical aspect, while environmental quality are deemed to be the least important factor. Findings also indicate that all four socioeconomic variable are sufficiently significant in determining housing liveability. Thus, efforts to promote neighbourhood liveability should be focused on ensuring the overall physical aspect of the residential environment by incorporating a design that creates comfortable living. The result also implies that socioeconomic can be used as an indicator tool for housing development programme planning particularly when housing are intended to meet specific target group.