Residential satisfaction and mobility in Göktürk peripheral neighbourhood

Among the main factors that affect residential mobility, satisfaction of households from their living environment and dwelling is outstanding since it covers most of the related variables. The extent to which households expectations are met by their residential environment depends on the socioeconomic features matching the physical and spatial qualities of their living environment. This paper aims to contribute to theory and practice concerning residential satisfaction in housing through an assessment of the Göktürk residential neighbourhood and its housing, and its relationship to households’ residential mobility. Göktürk, which is located in the northwestern periphery of Istanbul, is a significant residential area, with the majority of its inhabitants live in houses with luxury lifestyle while other households are living in informal settlements with the lowest quality of housing and neighbourhood. In the first section of this paper, an overview of the residential texture of the Göktürk neighbourhood is discussed. Following this, the methodology and analysis of findings covering 210 households’ views living in two main segments in terms of their socio-economic characteristics are reviewed. Finally, the physical features of neighbourhood such as housing and status of its quality are discussed to explore the overall satisfaction of respondents with their current situation. The importance of this research is that, in this area, two income groups of households which are very different from each other are living side by side. The major findings reveal that most households are satisfied with the quality of neighbourhood while a significant number of high-income households are dissatisfied with the environmental quality of neighbourhood and are satisfied with their housing, whereas some middle- and upper-class households are dissatisfied with their housing. It should be noticed that low-income households continue to admit that they are satisfied with their homes, despite the fact that they are living in squatter settlements, indicating that they do not want to lose their houses even with the least level of quality.