A Residential Satisfaction Assessment of Public Rental Board Housing in the Greater Suva Urban Area, Fiji Islands

By: Eroni Batikawai and Asenaca Nawaqalevu (email: batikawai_e(at)usp.ac.fj)

Abstract

Residential satisfaction is an important measure of overall quality of life and determines how individuals respond to their housing environment. The study examines the level of tenants’ satisfaction with Public Rental Board (PRB) flats in the Greater Suva Urban Area (GSUA), Fiji. The objective of the study is to investigate the factors affecting the residential satisfaction of tenants of PRB rental flats using a survey instrument measuring tenants’ perceptive responses to the various facets of their housing environment. The study finds that PRB tenants have relatively higher satisfaction level for the building quality features and neighbourhood factors, whilst lower satisfaction level is recorded for the building physical design and housing management services. Physical building design features such as the size of bedrooms, dining areas, together with housing management features such as handling of tenant’s complaints, and treatment of tenants, have been rated by tenants to be below satisfactory levels. The factorial ANOVA on the survey data indicates that there are no statistically significant differences in residential satisfaction levels attributed to independent variables such as age, education level, and family type. However, residential satisfaction levels were statistically different among the six PRB estates examined in the study.

Keywords: Greater Suva Urban Area; Housing; Public Rental Board; Residential Satisfaction

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