Developing an Affordable Housing Livability Index

 DEVELOPING AN AFFORDABLE HOUSING LIVABILITY INDEX

 Dr. Fauziah Bt. Raji (Project Leader)

Assoc. Professor Dr. Ibrahim Sipan

Dr. Shadiya Mohamed Baqutayan

Dr. Intan Sazreena Saimy

Dr. Wilson Rangga Anak Anthony Jiram

Safira Nabilla Muhammad Muhir (Research Assistant)

ABSTRACT

This research developed and empirically tested a model that leads to better understanding of the AHL dimension as well as delivers better prediction of the research model. Notwithstanding, there is very little research in the area of AHL. Thus, this study has determined and identified AHL dimension. This study has drawn upon the AHL structural model which has been extensively validated in the Malaysian housing context. This has led to the conceptualisation of the research model used in this research. Three objectives of this research were: to determine the attributes and sub-attributes of livable-affordable-homes; to measure housing livability attributes; and to develop a housing livability index for affordable housing in Malaysia using Structural Equation Modeling techniques. This three-phase, multiphase mixed method study utilised within the constructivist and positivist paradigm. The combination of qualitative and quantitative data provided a more complete picture by noting trends and generalization as well as in-depth knowledge of participants’ perspectives, hence, enhance the reliability and validity of the research data. The first phase was a qualitative exploration of AHL by collecting interview data from a sample of 12 experts consisting of government bodies, Public and Private Universities and NGOs. The analyses show that, affordable housing livability is conceptualized as a composite of seven dimensions such as physical aspects, community and neighbourhood, public amenities, economic development, residence wellbeing, safety and security, and psychology impact. Survey method has been adopted to collect data for testing the conceptual model. A self-administered questionnaire approach was chosen to measure the affordable housing livability dimensions. A total sample of 297 was used for data analysis and were analysed through two statistical software tools i.e., SPSS and SmartPLS 3.2.7. The hypotheses H1-H7, were accepted, because they were statistically significant. Further analysis with Important-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) was conducted for prioritizing constructs and to provide information on the relative importance of constructs to develop the AHLI. Lastly, FGD 2 was conducted to evaluate and validate the affordable housing livability model and AHLI with the sample of 20 participants. In general, the analyses signify that the participant largely agree on the importance of AHLI.

Keywords Affordable housing, livability