Studies on residential satisfaction in unplanned neighbourhoods have focused on social interactions and overall
satisfaction with housing and neighbourhood as well as the decision to move. Few studies have focused on the
comparison of satisfaction with residential components between previous and current unplanned neighbourhoods.
This study compares satisfaction with residential components between previous and current unplanned
neighbourhoods among young households in Kano Metropolitan, Nigeria with a view to provide a database to
the policy makers on the housing situations in unplanned neighbourhoods. Data for this study was obtained from
364 randomly selected heads of young households in unplanned neighbourhoods in Kano city using selfadministered
questionnaire survey. Yeh’s Index of satisfaction (YIS) was used in the data analyses to compare
the level of satisfaction with residential components (housing and neighbourhood) between the previous and
current neighbourhoods among the respondents. The findings showed that there were differences in satisfaction
with the components the previous and current unplanned neighbourhoods. The findings further revealed that the
respondents were very highly satisfied with current housing features and housing conditions, while moderately
satisfied with neighbourhood amenities and accessibility in the current neighbourhoods. However, the
respondents were dissatisfied with all the residential components in the previous neighbourhoods. Thus, the
respondents were most satisfied with housing and neighbourhood components in the current than in the previous
neighbourhoods. It is recommended that policy makers and urban and housing planners should pay more
attention to the aspects of residential components that the young households were not highly satisfied with in
future policy for improving residential situation of households living in unplanned areas in major cities.