Multifamily housing and resident life satisfaction in Europe: an exploratory analysis

Much of the literature on sustainable communities and compact cities calls for higher density housing including multifamily dwellings. Some researchers suggest problems with such dwellings. However, rigorous comparative research on this topic has not been conducted to date. This paper draws on a hig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Housing studies 2017-10, Vol.32 (7), p.887-911
Main Author: Winston, Nessa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
built form
Cities
compact cities
Comparative analysis
Data quality
Density
Detaching
Development strategies
Dwellings
Economic development
Housing
Life control
Life satisfaction
multifamily housing
Multiple dwellings
Neighborhoods
Quality
Quality of life
Residential density
Residents
Social regeneration
Statistical analysis
Sustainability
Training needs
Urban areas
Urban regeneration
Urban renewal
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Summary:Much of the literature on sustainable communities and compact cities calls for higher density housing including multifamily dwellings. Some researchers suggest problems with such dwellings. However, rigorous comparative research on this topic has not been conducted to date. This paper draws on a high quality, comparative data-set, the European Social Survey, to analyse (a) the quality of multifamily dwellings in European urban areas, (b) the characteristics of residents, (c) their life satisfaction compared with those living in detached housing and (d) the relative importance of built form in explaining life satisfaction. One of the main findings from the multivariate analyses is that residing in multifamily housing is not a statistically significant predictor of life satisfaction when you control for standard predictors of life satisfaction and housing and neighbourhood quality. Overall, the findings provide support for both place-based and people-based responses to urban regeneration. Both physical and social regeneration are required, addressing the education/training needs of residents and economic development strategies.
ISSN:0267-3037
1466-1810
DOI:10.1080/02673037.2017.1280776