Does Size Really Matter for the Place Attachment of High-Rise and Low-Rise Housing Estates? A Budapest Case Study

Abstract

The current research seeks to understand the relationship between residential satisfaction and place attachment by assessing where significant differences exist in the social environment among people living in low-rise and high-rise housing estates in Budapest, Hungary. The study employed multistage sampling techniques to collect information on the social environment and the residential satisfaction of individuals living in Budapest’s low-rise and high-rise housing estates. The data consisted of 213 participants over the age of 18. Results reveal that a decrease in the number of dependents within both high-rise (p = 0.013) and low-rise (p < 0.001) estates, as well as smaller household sizes in both high-rise (p = 0.013) and low-rise (p = 0.005) estates, aligns with lower satisfaction with the social environment. Habitability indices suggest that low-rise estates generally foster a more positive perception of the social environment, stronger community connections, and higher trust among neighbours, supporting the hypothesis that residents in high-rise estates may be dissatisfied with their social surroundings. Notably, the logistic regression analysis highlights a negative association (β = −0.12) between the satisfaction index (SI) and overall satisfaction in high-rise housing, emphasizing that higher SI values are linked to lower odds of satisfaction in this context. Conversely, the low-rise model shows a statistically significant positive association (p < 0.005) between SI and overall satisfaction. Thus, the size of the residential building does matter when it comes to individuals feeling attached to their residential environment.