USER SATISFACTION OF HOUSING AND RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT: BURSA/YILDIRIM

Abstract

The qualities of a housing unit and the residential environment have a direct impact on user satisfaction; and factors such as the characteristics of a district of a house; social and recreational facilities; transportation facilities; accessibility; services; maintenance; and green area ratio are features that shape user satisfaction from their residential environment. The factors affecting satisfaction from a housing unit are the quality and features of it. Economic factors, sense of belonging and loyalty and social relations have an impact on the satisfaction from a house and a neighborhood, which are related to user qualifications and socio-economic environment. In this context, the aim of this study is to investigate the satisfaction from houses and neighborhood with an empirical research conducted at the neighborhood scale. The neighborhoods selected for evaluating the satisfaction levels of the dwellers from their houses were Arabayatağı, Davutdede, Duaçınarı, Gökdere, Mimar Sinan in the Yıldırım District of Bursa, which are preferred mostly by people that migrate to Bursa and have technical and social infrastructure is problems due to a high number of illegally constructed houses. For the field study, surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted with 300 people residing in the selected neighborhoods. The questionnaires and in-depth interviews were conducted under sections to evaluate the personal characteristics of the participants; satisfaction from the neighborhood; and the satisfaction from the houses in Yıldırım District. The results indicate that Yıldırım District is preferred due to economic reasons or because of the desire to live in the same neighborhood with families and relatives. In the district both the quality of the physical environment and the level of satisfaction from accessibility are low. The feeling that the district is not safe enough and insufficient socio-cultural opportunities and public spaces have a negative impact on social relations. The results obtained in Yıldırım district indicate that housing satisfaction is low due to the poor quality of the housing similar to the environment that houses are located. Through the discussion of the results obtained, it is aimed to increase the satisfaction of the users in Yıldırım district with the right interventions and to create suggestions that will contribute to regions and districts with similar housing conditions.