ABSTRACT
Construction industry is a major factor in the social integration of a society using various avenues such as housing. The current and future prospects in the housing sector depend on the extent to which users, as stakeholders, are satisfied with the built facilities - a project is only successful to the extent that it satisfies the needs of it intended user. Therefore, the aim of the dissertation is to determine users' level of satisfaction with public housing estates in Dutse, Jigawa State. The research design adopted both quantitative and qualitative methods. Data on the Housing Estates was obtained from the records of the Dutse Capital Development Authority (DCDA), while a structured questionnaire was used to collect data from households in the estates. The questionnaire addressed issues relating houses acquisition, users' satisfaction levels with respect to general neighbourhood, functionality and health and safety performance of the houses. Simple percentage, weighted average and Relative Importance Index were used to analyse data. The results indicated that 80.4% of the users acquired their houses through mortgage institutions among the options available. Overall assessment of factors having to do with neighbourhood of the housing estates was adjudged by the users to be generally satisfactory. In particular, the users ranked ?Security' first with RII and mean values of 0.72 and 3.59, respectively. There was a significant and fairly significant level of satisfaction with functionality factors except with Dining Areas, as reflected by RII and mean values of 0.43 and 2.17, respectively. Regarding health and safety provisions, the users assessed all the factors therein as significant in terms of satisfaction. The research concludes that; users preferred mortgage arrangement among other options; and that users were generally satisfied with the housing estates. However, none of the factors were assessed to be at very significant level of satisfaction, therefore the study recommends that efforts should be put in place towards improvement of the houses with respect to the assessed factors. This is important because buildings deteriorate with age and rate of usage and this will, in the future, affect the established levels of satisfaction.