Matrix of Affordable Housing Assessment: A Development Process

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a multiracial society with diverse housing and a potential real estate market. This study focused on users’ perceptions of the designs of available and affordable private housing stock in Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman, which are the most populated states (emirates) of the UAE. A literature review and case studies of low- to medium-rise residential buildings were used to determine the parameters defining affordable housing design, and a model was developed of 7 design segments (independent variables) with 39 dependent variables. The model consists of a matrix of 39 design variables, in which each variable is set in a survey tool with a Likert scale to evaluate user satisfaction levels with the designs of their respective buildings. Questionnaires were distributed among the inhabitants of several buildings at different locations in the emirates. This study found that 16 anomalous design factors failed to satisfy users. It is likely that the results of this study will provide a blueprint for dialogue between regional building designers and end users to improve the designs of new buildings. The resulting design assessment matrix can be used for the analysis of residential buildings in other parts of the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

Residents’ and Architects’ Perceptions of Apartments’ Spatial Characteristics—Identifying Differences in Opinion on a Case Study of Osijek, Croatia

“…So far, residential satisfaction and, thus, the quality of housing in different countries has been examined on the basis of different domains and criteria, considering different resident characteristics and different types of housing. Studies have been carried out in Europe [18,23,25,26], Asia [6,27,28], America [8,29], Africa [2,17,30] and Australia [4,31] to investigate the quality of housing in large housing estates [23], affordable housing [11,32,33], public [17,21,34] and private housing estates [6,35]. The surveys involved tenants in rental housing [31,34], low-income communities [29,36], students and young people [26,27,30], the elderly population [10,37], etc.…”

Housing Quality Assessment Model Based on the Spatial Characteristics of an Apartment

“…In addition to the ones presented, there are many other different models and methodologies that deal with the assessment of different aspects of housing, such as: estimation algorithm for predicting the performance of private apartment buildings in Hong Kong [33], matrix of affordable housing assessment that design variables set in a survey tool with a Likert scale to evaluate user satisfaction levels with the designs of their respective buildings [34]; various different green building assessment tools that evaluate environmental performance of buildings including the residential ones such as BREEAM [35] or LEED [36], Assessment of Housing Quality method with 47 factors for assessing the quality of housing which are scored from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important) and where data was statistically processed in SPSS 9.0 software [37], etc.…”