Effect of Socio-Economic Attributes on Resident’s Satisfaction in Low-Density Area of Bauchi Metropolis

© 2021 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License Abstract. This study examined the effect of socio-economic attributes of residents on housing satisfaction in the Bauchi metropolis to reveal ways to improve households’ housing situation in the Bauchi metropolis. The study adopted a quantitative approach. The questionnaire was designed and administered to 380 House Hold Heads with 258 retrieved. Households were surveyed employing stratified random sampling to generate data on the households’ socio-economic attributes and housing satisfaction. Data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics (Mean score and frequency table) and multiple regression through the use of SPSS to examine the effect of variables. The study revealed that most households have means of earning income and that household size is large. Households in the low-density area have moderate satisfaction with their housing condition. The study demonstrated a significant effect of socio-economic attributes on housing conditions and satisfaction in the study area. As a matter of urgency, it was recommended that the government provide the lacking social amenities, renovate the deteriorating ones, and enforce development control standards.


INTRODUCTION
Socio-economic characteristic defines family's position, rank, class, status or economic position in a community [3]. Socio-economic attributes differ from one household to the other, and it provides a social picture at a glance, such as occupation, income and education. In addition, it is based upon the concepts of allocating limited resources to various activities related to protection and conservation [1].
The quality of life is closely associated with housing. Housing is committed by other factors such as income, employment, education, work-life balance, life satisfaction, and society's perceived quality [9]. Housing is the sole pillar of individual satisfaction and has been considered "to be the determinant of the quality of life" [8].
Housing satisfaction thus is determined by residents' perceptions of their neighbourhood and living conditions. This suggests a low level of dissatisfaction and a high degree of agreement between desired and actual conditions and the satisfaction of residents' everyday housing needs. On the contrary, incongruence between their actual and desired housing conditions may lead to dissatisfaction [5]. However, there is a propensity for low-income families to be satisfied with housing with more deficit than middle-income families. This is because low-income acts as a constraint in that low-income families cannot obtain non-deficit housing [4].
Furthermore, Bauchi observed that an individual's socio-economic characteristics influence his earnings, influencing his housing satisfaction. Hence the practical gap is acknowledged. Against this backdrop, this study examined the effect of individual-based socio-economic characteristics on housing satisfaction in the Bauchi metropolis and ascertained how households' socio-economic characteristics affected their housing satisfaction.
This study aims to determine the effect of socioeconomic attributes on resident's satisfaction in the low-density area of the Bauchi metropolis, revealing the significant relationship of the effect of socio-economic attributes condition on resident satisfaction. Objectives: 1. To identify the socio-economic characteristics of residents in the Bauchi metropolis.

2.
To examine the level of resident's satisfaction in the study area.
3. To assess the effect of socio-economic attributes on residents' satisfaction in the study area.

Methodology
The research methodology adopted is quantitative. The questionnaire was developed and administered to the respondents. A total of one hundred and twenty-six (126) copies of the questionnaires were administered in which Out of the 126 questionnaires administered, 94 valid copies were filled and retrieved. The sample size selection is somewhat similar to those used by other social science researchers (such as [2,6]) in Nigeria as the basis for obtaining the sample size. Sixty-three households are sampled within each of these residential neighbourhoods making a total number of 126 households. The old and new GRA was chosen from the low-density residential areas. The sampling method adopted was the stratified random sampling method, which is the most fundamental method and gives every subject in a population an equal chance of being selected. After the considerable collection of data, the method of data analysis employed to analyse the data gathered from the field was descriptive, mean ranking and multiple regression using SPSS Version 22. Table 1 revealed the socio-economic attributes of the respondent. Again, males were the predominant respondents in the study area. Similarly, the research has found that people within the age less than 30 years accounted for (53.19%) of the total population. Also, the survey indicates that the majority of the respondents were married (67.02%). The result of the households' occupation shows that majority of the respondents are civil servants. At the same time, 69.15% of the entire respondent are people who are retirees, students, craftsmen and artisans in the whole study area. This indicates that most of the respondents in the study area have the means to derive some income and are NCE holders.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Also, analysis of households' income indicates that most participants have an income of N31,000-N60,000. Furthermore, the majority of the residents practice Islam as a faith. This corresponds with [00] findings, which stated that most Bauchi metropolitan area residents practise the Islamic religion. Also, the study reveals that the majority 51 (54.26%) of respondents have 6-10 members within the fold of their households. Finally, the principal tribe are the Hausas which also conforms with the study by [6].    Table 3 shows the regression model summary and the ANOVA result. The model produced an overall R-value of 0.387 and R 2 value of 0.101 with F-statistics of 3.052, which shows a highly significant value of .000 which means p is less than 0.05. The model as a whole predicts about 38.7 % of the variance in housing satisfaction. In other words, about 15 % of the changes in housing satisfaction can be explained by changes in socio-economic attributes. The table presents the goodness fittest of the model, which shows that the model is fitted and suitable for the analysis as it produced a highly significant p-value of .000.  So, this concludes that Gender and Farming as a form of occupation were the only socio-economic attributes that significantly affect housing satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis conducted so far, it is evidenced that socio-economic attributes affect neighbourhood satisfaction. The analysis is based on mean scoring and multiple regression, revealing that most households are pretty satisfied with their neighbourhood characteristics. Furthermore, the study revealed that out of the socio-economic attributes, gender and Farming as a form of occupation were the only socio-economic attributes that significantly affect housing satisfaction. Therefore, the generation of employment opportunities, otherwise known as economic revitalisation, is highly needed in the area.
In view that socio-economic characteristics influence resident satisfaction, the government should provide lacking social amenities, rehabilitate any that are deteriorating, and enforce development control standards to improve resident satisfaction in the study area. In addition, organised private sectors should establish institutions to create employment opportunities and quality education for residents of the study area to improve their financial status.