Influence of socio-demographic factors and housing characteristics on satisfaction with privacy in gated communities in Accra (Ghana)

Abstract

Gated Communities (GCs) are rapidly popularizing and becoming a dominant form of housing in Global South Cities. Using binary logistic regression analysis, this article examines how socio-demographic and housing characteristics predict residents’ satisfaction with privacy in Devtraco and Manet (GCs) in Accra, Ghana. Ceteris paribus, residents of Devtraco had lower odds of being satisfied with privacy compared to those in Manet (OR = 0.23; p < 0.05). Level of education, age, home renovations were positively associated with satisfaction with privacy. Respondents with post-secondary education had higher odds of being satisfied with privacy compared to those with secondary education or less (OR= 10.56; p < 0.01). Respondents who changed their interior doors reported higher satisfaction with privacy in their homes compared to those that did not change their interior doors (OR = 4.94; p < 0.05). Complaints against housing features and security service charges decrease residents’ satisfaction with privacy. Thus, the findings might inform decision making for different housing actors.

Keywords:

• Accra
• gated communities
• residential satisfaction
• privacy

Acknowledgements

The authors greatly appreciate the participants from Manet and Devtraco Gated Communities in Accra for their time in responding to survey questions. Thanks to all the three anonymous reviewers and Editors for their constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interests were reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elmond Bandauko

Elmond Bandauko is a PhD Candidate and SSHRC Vanier Scholar in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Western Ontario, London Ontario, Canada. He is also a Graduate Fellow in the Center for Urban Policy and Local Governance under the Network for Economic and Social Trends (NEST), University of Western Ontario. Elmond’s research interests include urban governance and infrapolitics of the urban poor, urban transformation in Global South cities (including gated communities and new cities), urban marginalization, residential satisfaction, and place attachment among others.

Senanu Kwasi Kutor

Senanu Kwasi Kutor is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Western Ontario, London Ontario, Canada. Senanu’s research interests span rural-urban migration, urban informality in cities of the developing world, international migration, migrants’ integration, and transnationalism.

Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong

Hanson Nyantakyi ‑Frimpong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Denver, Denver, United States of America. He is a human-environment geographer interested in questions at the intersection of two main subfields: the human dimensions of global environmental change, and sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Philip Baiden

Philip Baiden is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, School of Social Work. His area of research interests are non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), child abuse and neglect, international social work research, as well as quantitative research methodology and statistical analysis.

Godwin Arku

Godwin Arku is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Western Ontario, London Ontario, Canada. His research interests span the ‘urban’ and ‘economic’ sub-division of human geography, especially as they relate to the transformation of urban systems in a changing global environment.