@ARTICLE{Azimi, author = {Azimi, Nooreddin and Faroughi, Mohammadreza and }, title = {Residents’ satisfaction with the quality of new housing construction in rural areas (The case of Shaft Region, Iran)}, volume = {34}, number = {151}, abstract ={Housing plays a major role in the quality of human life and constitutes an important part of living costs especially for low income families. Because of its high cost, most governments assist for the housing supply, especially for low-income groups through social housing or low-interest rate loans. In 2005, a "special rural housing improvement plan” was ratified in Iran which aimed to reduce the vulnerability of rural housing against natural hazards and improve the living quality in rural areas.  Under this policy, low interest rate housing loan was provided for residents willing to construct new houses. This article aims to evaluate rural residents' satisfaction with the quality of these newly built houses. Utilized data in this research comes from a questionnaire survey conducted in 2012 in the Shaft county of Guilan Province, Iran. A total of 332 residents in 10 villages who used rural housing loan were interviewed. Findings indicate that compared to the old houses, main changes in the new rural houses comprise physical improvements including concrete/iron structure, use of durable building material, better facade, smaller housing size and fewer rooms. Another important change is related to the change in architectural design, such as open kitchens, placing bathrooms inside the houses and excluding the non-residential spaces from residential units.  Moreover, housing utilities have been enhanced by increased accessibility to land line telephone and natural gas supply.  In terms of satisfaction, results show that most residents who received rural housing loan are quite satisfied with the physical conditions, better protection against weather conditions, improved facilities and more beautiful exterior design of their new houses compared with the old ones. The results of kruskal-Wallis tests on contributing factors showed that the residents’ satisfaction in the study area varied based on the geographical location, population of villages, housing size, construction time and the previous location of rural residents. }, URL = {http://jhre.ir/article-1-806-en.html}, eprint = {http://jhre.ir/article-1-806-en.pdf}, journal = {Journal of Housing and Rural Environment}, doi = {}, year = {2015} }