Background: Recently, a novel coronavirus has caused global health concerns. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, house quarantine was considered to prevent the outbreak of the disease and ensure physical health, but it may cause serious mental health problems. The present study aims to assess housing satisfaction, housing preference of residents, and their mental health in house quarantine of COVID-19 considering housing type, spaces, environmental factors, and function and activities.Methods: Quantitative data were gathered through administering online questionnaires. In April 2020, 421 valid responses were gathered from people who were living in Tehran. Then the collected data were analyzed using SPSS.Results: According to the result, environmental factors have a higher mean than spaces and functions and activities throughout housing preference. Satisfaction with all parameters affects improving mental health. The kitchen, view quality, exercise, and cultivation and maintenance of plants have the greatest impact on improving mental health among house spaces, environmental factors, activities, and functions, respectively. The mental health of people living in private houses is better than residents of low-rise and high-rise housing.Conclusions: Residents' opinions about the houses showed that there are differences between the current situation of the house and the preferences of the people during the house quarantine period, which has been effective in the mental health of the residents in this period. Consideration of parameters in housing design by architects and home planners can improve people's mental health during special and critical situations such as house quarantine due to the spread of epidemics.

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A growing body of evidence indicates that the environmental quality of residential neighbourhoods has an impact on their liveability. It can be a contributory factor to the prosperity and development of cities because it reflects the real-life experiences of residents and can also affect the attractiveness of a city for well-qualified workers. A liveable neighbourhood can help to improve the quality of life of residents, which is one of the determining factors in creating a socially sustainable urban environment. This research aimed to develop a practical method for assessing the liveability of a residential neighbourhood, tested in two contrasting countries, Iran and Estonia. We developed and tested a set of criteria based on the principles and attributes of liveability obtained from the literature and we used a Delphi survey of Iranian and Estonian urban planning and design experts to identify which of the candidate criteria were most appropriate to each country together with their priority weighting. The results showed that while many of the same criteria applied to both countries, the importance of them varied, in part reflecting environmental and social differences such as climate. The method has potential for use in the development of indicators of liveability as part of urban sustainability assessment.

Highlights  We make a transition from the expert application of liveability indicators.  We test their applicability for neighbourhood liveability evaluation by residents.  Similarities in environmental preferences are found between citizens of Tartu and Tehran.  The neighbourhood liveability is influenced by attributes of residential neighbourhoods.