The influence of tenure status on housing satisfaction and indoor environmental quality in Finnish apartment buildings

Abstract

Please cite this article as: Pekkonen M, Du L, Skön J-P, Raatikainen M, Haverinen-Shaughnessy U, The influence of tenure status on housing satisfaction and indoor environmental quality in Finnish apartment buildings, Building and Environment (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2015 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTBased on a previous national scale housing and health questionnaire survey, we observed significant differences in many housing quality attributes by dwelling types and tenure status.Respondents living in apartment buildings and rental houses reported being less satisfied with their housing conditions than respondents living in owner-occupied apartments or houses inFinland. In this subsequent work, we aim to study the associations between tenure status and housing satisfaction among respondents living in apartment buildings (N=397). Further on, we used measurement data collected from 28 apartments in six buildings to determine if the differences in housing satisfaction could be related to objectively measured indoor environmental quality indicators: indoor temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide concentrations. Based on the results, the respondents from rental flats were significantly more unlikely to be satisfied with their dwelling, and to report their dwellings suitable warm in winter than the respondents from owner-occupied flats. Based on the measurement data, small differences were observed in thermal conditions by tenure status, however, a large portion of all apartments appeared to be overheated, and only one apartment experienced room temperatures below 18 o C during winter. In conclusion, there were large differences between occupant self-reported satisfaction and thermal comfort by tenure status, but differences in measured parameters were relatively small. The results indicate that occupant characteristics are likely to explain majority of differences by tenure status, which should be taken into account when assessing the overall relationships between housing and health.

Residents' Satisfaction Towards the Indoor Environmental Quality of Re-engineered Affordable Housing Scheme in Malaysia

“…As Turunen et al (2014), Willich et al (2006) and Pekkonen et al (2015) suggest, higher density transportation and public access areas are prone to dust, particulate matter, and gas and noise pollution. These consequently affect the health of the occupants.…”

Housing Qualities Characteristics towards Relationship on House Prices

“…The studies conducted by Safian & Nawawi, (2013), Dinarvandi et al, (2014), Agarwal, Patil, &Mehar, (2013), andErbıyık et al, (2012) showed that they have chosen tenants, owners and also property users as respondents in achieving the goal of producing importance of each characteristic of houses. Other research conducted by Ho et al, (2005), Pekkonen, Du, Skon, Raatikainen, & Haverinen-Shaughnessy, (2015, Mulliner, Smallbone, & Maliene, (2013) and Khoiry et al, (2012) has shown that they have preferences to choose users, occupants, and owners of houses in their research as they were the residents of the houses and had the highest information relating towards their properties. Based on the actions from previous researchers, the researcher has concluded that the occupants will the most suitable respondents in the measurement of weightage of importance towards characteristics of houses.…”

Visual Description of the Indoor Space of Real Estate in Crowd-Sourcing Environments

“…The dimensions of interior space are based on the area of the property. Some people prefer to live in a bigger space, while others, especially young people, prefer to live in a smaller place (Pekkonen et al, 2015). If people wishing to live in a bigger place have low incomes, the probability of choosing an estate in the suburbs will increase (Ho et al, 2015).…”

“…In 2010, the results of a survey in Korea showed that, among various residential properties, 59% of the population has apartments as their main place of residence. In Finland, 80% of people live in apartments (Pekkonen et al, 2015), especially the younger population; however, the poor design of the housing properties cannot meet the needs of different customers (Lee & Ha, 2013). It is moreover interesting to note that, in developed countries, people spend more than 90% of their time indoors (Fasolo, 2016;Frontczak & Wargocki, 2011).…”