Homebuyers' preferences of housing facilities in medium-cost housing that enhance wellbeing and happiness

Abstract

With the recognition of community as the core of the sustainability in United Nation's Agenda 21, housing facilities play an important role in addressing the community-productivity relationship, as part of the requirements for sustainable community development. Similarly, Facilities Management (FM) is a resource management that integrates people, place and process in providing vital services to support the society. Hence, facilities managers have a significant role in improving the communities' productivity by improving the sustainability of the facilities. However the emergence of housing facilities as an effort to achieve community sustainability in the absence of public's views on the preferences of housing facilities, may have led to the underutilized housing facilities. Therefore, this study aims to identify the homebuyers' preferences on housing facilities in medium-cost housing that enhance wellbeing and happiness; and to identify the similarities and differences between the homebuyers' preferences on housing facilities in medium-cost housing that enhance wellbeing and happiness. This study used a convenient sample, close-ended questions survey to 120 respondents who attended PRIMA Open Day and are eligible to purchase PRIMA homes, one of the Government's medium-cost housing program. The relevance and level of importance of the listed housing facilities which were derived from the Urban Planning' Community Facilities Planning Guidelines (GP004A) published by Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government were then analysed using frequency and importance index calculations. The findings show that most of the listed housing facilities are important to be included in the mediumcost housing. However, respondents were in view that religious facilities are the most important housing facilities that enhance both wellbeing and happiness. Furthermore, the similarities of homebuyers' preferences on housing facilities in medium-cost housing that enhance wellbeing and happiness were ranked in first, fourth and fifth places namely Religious Facilities, Open Spaces, Recreational & Sport Facilities; and Public Community Facilities. Whereas the differences of homebuyers' preferences on housing facilities in medium-cost housing that enhance wellbeing and happiness were ranked in second and third places vice versa namely Security Facilities and Educational Facilities. The findings in this study serve as an insight on the housing facilities which are valued most by the homebuyers in the medium-cost housing that enhance their productivity in terms of wellbeing and happiness. This will allow the facility managers to have a brief understanding on "what should be considered', 'which should be emphasised' and 'what to be considered more' in managing the housing facilities as well as the neighbourhood in improving the community sustainability.