Residential satisfaction among young people in post-socialist countries: the case of Serbia

Change in labor markets, extended education period and economic instability are negatively influencing housing accessibility of young adults. In post-socialist countries, such as Serbia, the biggest issues are the lack of supply volume and diversity of government subsidized housing, as well as the soaring prices of the newly built homes. As a result, young people are relying on the unregulated private rental market or their families to help them enter homeownership and acquire residential independence. There is an apparent need for affordable housing or policies which are catering to young people's needs. The relevant body of research has been using residential satisfaction approach to provide an evaluation of the variety of housing available to young tenants. Hence, the primary purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which are significantly related or can predict the higher residential satisfaction and can be beneficial to the future policy makers in Serbia. To assess the residential satisfaction, following variables were included: socioeconomic characteristics, residential status, current housing characteristics, problems faced in the current dwelling, housing attribute preferences, privacy perception, dwelling proximity, neighborhood attachment, as well as overall residential satisfaction. The findings indicate that young people in Serbia had average levels of satisfaction with their housing despite the various problems and lack of privacy they were facing in the apartments. Higher residential satisfaction in this research was significantly predicted by the marital status of our respondents (single people were more satisfied), homeownership tenancy status, independent living arrangement, larger apartment size, greater levels of privacy and higher neighborhood attachment.