Subjective life satisfaction in public housing in urban areas of Ogun State, Nigeria

• Subjective life satisfaction in public housing in urban areas of Ogun State, Nigeria was assessed.
• A majority of the respondents were satisfied with life in their current residences.
• Tenure, income and marital status and housing satisfaction influenced subjective life satisfaction significantly.
• Subjective life satisfaction in public housing can be enhanced by improving housing satisfaction.

This study investigated subjective life satisfaction of 452 residents in 10 newly constructed public housing estates in urban areas of Ogun State Southwest Nigeria. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and subjected to descriptive statistics, factor and multivariate regression analyses. The result shows that 61% of the respondents were generally satisfied with life in their current residences. A larger proportion of them were also found to be satisfied with the physical and spatial characteristics of the dwelling unit components of their housing environment but were dissatisfied with access to housing services and infrastructural facilities. Tenure, income and marital status as well as satisfaction with the size of residence, housing services and management of the housing estates and housing delivery strategy were among the strongest predictors of subjective life satisfaction among the respondents. This implies that among other factors, satisfaction with housing environment as well as housing delivery strategy have a significant influence on residents’ satisfaction with life in public housing. Therefore, public housing developers need to take adequate steps to improve residents’ satisfaction with the size of main activity areas in dwelling units, housing services and management of housing estates and encourage the participation of users in housing delivery process in order to enhance the subjective life satisfaction of residents of public housing in urban areas in Nigeria.