AN ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC HOUSING COMPONENTS IN PORT MORESBY AND LAE CITIES USING PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS (PCA)

Abstract

This study is designed to identify and assess the salient value-enhancing-features of the existing public housing infrastructure in Port Moresby and Lae cities of Papua New Guinea. The study was conducted in eight (8) randomly selected public housing areas (four suburbs from each of the two cities of Port Moresby and Lae that fall under the same institutional and legal jurisdiction of the Morobe Provincial Government). Residents of 157 public housing units were successfully interviewed using stratified sampling based on segmentation of the income levels of the population sample according to PNG‟s public servants‟ performance-based salary scale for 2012-2013. The primary data collection instruments used consisted of questionnaires, informal interviews and field observations, while secondary data was sourced mainly from the National Population Census, 2011.Findings indicate that the patent principal components of public housing in PNG include water leakages and access roads that are infested with pot-holes needing urgent repairs. In addition, many of the housing structures need urgent repairs, while tenant‟s housing allowances have to be reviewed upwards to match the rate of inflation and neutralize the effects of the current economic hardships on people living in the country. The salient latent components of the public housing units include low levels of tenants‟ satisfaction with their accommodation that is generally regarded as choky due to the small amount of living space available in the units, and the changing preferences of tenants that are not adequately addressed by the existing public housing policy.