Residential satisfaction with affordable housing in northern Iran

PurposeThe current study is an attempt to investigate the residential satisfaction and prioritize effective components on residents' satisfaction based on household surveys conducted in eight Mehr housing complexes in Mazandaran province located in different counties of this region.Design/methodology/approachIn the current work, using software of SmartPLS 3, second-order confirmatory factor analysis has been employed to evaluate and rank influential factors on residents' satisfaction.FindingsAs a result of descriptive analysis, 51.8% of the respondents were highly satisfied with Mehr housing complexes. Moreover, the results showed that there was the highest level of satisfaction (76.3%) with the security, while the lowest one (34.4%) was related to satisfaction with the facilities of the housing complexes. The standardized coefficients obtained showed that the components of physical characteristics (0.901), facility (0.863), neighborhood relationship (0.810), visual quality (0.774), security (0.737) and environmental health (0.715) have the most influence on the satisfaction of the residents, respectively.Originality/valueThis paper proved that migration has a significant effect on the level of residents' satisfaction, in multicultural cities. Therefore, it is crucial to promote social interaction and involvement among different ethnic groups in residential complexes that can result in intimacy, hence satisfying sociocultural needs, improving neighborhood relationships and consequent satisfaction of residents in Mehr housing projects in Iran.