ISSN 2360-7955
Abstract
Accepted 11th March, 2017
The term, housing includes the house itself and the total surrounding environment with its ancillary facilities and services (Obinna, 2008). The 1976 Vancouver (Canada) Declaration on Human Settlements of 1976 states that “Adequate shelter and services are a basic human right which places an obligation on governments to ensure their attainment by all people, beginning with direct assistance to the least advantaged through guided programmes of self-help and community action”; In housing production the perception of the end user is very important because they are the beneficiary so their views are equally important as stakeholders. Private estates residents’ perception and satisfaction is very important in the housing industry. Therefore, the objectives of the research were to; (1) To examine the perceptions of private estate residents about their neighbourhoods. (2) To examine the factors that determinants and give private estate residents satisfaction. (3) To engage estate residents and stalk holders in housing development by their involvement in discussions. The research design used was the “passive-observational” method The total number of private estate residents interviewed was 400 (ascertained field research). The study relied on two sources of information - primary and secondary. Primary sources comprised (a) a largely pre-coded questionnaire, administered face-to-face by trained interviewers, (b) Individual Depth Interviews (IDIs) of key informants, (c) direct observation, (c) measurement, and (d) photography. Secondary sources included: (a) unpublished and published material in past theses, books, journals, maps, etc; and (b) the Internet. Data analysis utilised mainly univariate and multivariate statistical analytical techniques. Analysis was carried out with the aid of the microcomputer – adapted Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 16. The results showed that Estate residents’ perception of their neighbourhood was measured using a 5-point Agreement-Disagreement Likert Scale, with reference to certain aspects of their estate. The research shows that over one third of estate residents strongly agreed that their estates were attractive, no doubt taking into account the state of the foregoing aspects. Thus, the research provides an insight into the determinants of perceived estate attractiveness – information that would be invaluable to prospective estate developers. Factors that determined the level of satisfaction were examined using Multiple Classification Analysis and 65% of the variance in satisfaction of residents was explained. This was quite high for a research of this type The study recommended, among others, that (1) Government should incorporate greener infrastructure in planning to enhance walkability, bike ability and ultimately the liveability of GPHC through the adoption of Tax Incentive programmes (TIP) for greener development. (2) Government should formulate policies and implement techniques that promote liveability in Greater Port Harcourt City. This can be achieved during the approval of building plan and building permit .processes by monitoring the project from start to finish.(3) Estate developers should furnish themselves with available and current researches that give adequate data of what estate residents’ perception of their estate. This will enable the estate developers produce estates that will be desired and easily rentable.
Keywords: Private Estate Residents, Perception, Neighbourhood Condition,