Unveiling the impact: how Malaysia's low-income housing programs shape resident experiences and quality of life

Malaysia's government has adopted many resettlement initiatives and housing policies to eliminate the growing number of informal settlements, meet the housing demands, and improve the quality of homes to achieve its aim of being a civilized country by 2020. A critical number of studies have been carried out to investigate the effect of low-cost housing environments on occupants' quality of life. However, there is a lack of study on the role of experiential values in forming the dwelling experience and forming long term outcomes in the context of housing. This study aims to understand the mediating effect of experiential values on the People’s Housing Programme (PPR) environment and quality of life (QoL) of PPR residents in Malaysia. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to analyse the causal relationships between constructs. The model was developed and later tested by adopting the Partial Least Square (PLS) procedure on data collected from a survey of PPR residents in five states that yielded 704 usable questionnaires. The finding shows interesting results whereby experiential values alone can substantially affect QoL and mediate between the PPR environment and QoL. Further, this study reveals that the PPR environment positively influences the QoL of PPR residents in Malaysia. Therefore, the time had come for the government to work closely with the private sector to provide a more liveable environment in PPR housing. Collaboration with the private sector needs to be strengthened through CSR, such as providing facilities and reducing costs incurred by the government.