Critical indicators for measuring neighborhood satisfaction in state provided housing in South Africa

The objective of this paper was to establish the attributes that determines neighborhood satisfaction in South Africa low-income housing subsidy scheme utilizing the Delphi approach. This is because the perception and housing satisfaction of low income housing beneficiaries toward their housing condition can be studied by examining their satisfaction towards the neighborhood factors. The Delphi method was used where the views of housing experts were solicited on 26 potential attributes as identified from literature. Consensus was achieved after three iterative rounds. The expert's scored each attributes on a 10-point ordinal scale of impact significance, where l-2=No impact and 910=very high impact. The scales adapted for consensus were: strong consensus, median 9-10, inter quartile deviation (IQD) ≤1; good consensus, median 7-8.99, IQD≥1.1≤2; weak consensus, median ≤ 6.99and IQD≥2.1≤3. The key findings indicate that there was a good to strong consensus of 19 attributes which were key attributes that the experts perceived as determinants of neighborhood satisfaction; while 6 other attributes had weak consensus, as they were considered to have a lesser impact in determining residents' neighborhood satisfaction. However, attributes with weak consensus were the attributes that are highly regarded as core neighborhood factors in other housing settings. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on the subject where no consensus has been reached pertaining to indicators for measuring neighborhood satisfaction in subsidized low-income housing in South Africa.Copyright