IMPACTS OF MIXED RETAIL AND PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS ON NEARBY RESIDENTS IN SUBURBAN AREAS OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

The increasing popularity of mixed retail and private residential developments could be due to the perceived benefits of shopping convenience, reduced dependency on motor vehicles and increased urban vitality in the neighbourhood. However, disadvantages such as noise pollution, security, crowdedness and traffic congestions were also the main concerns of residing in such high-density developments. From the perceived benefits and disadvantages, a hypothesis was formulated to examine if the extent of benefits of residing in such developments outweighing the disadvantages is greater or similar than the surrounding residents. However, only surrounding residents living within a 500-metres radius were considered for the four randomly selected mixed retail and private residential developments. The analysis and comparison of the perception between the two groups of respondents were carried out in the form of descriptive statistics and Independent Samples T-test. The main findings from the study showed that the group of respondents residing in such mixed-use developments significantly enjoy a higher level of shopping convenience despite also experiencing a greater amount of noise disturbances and traffic congestions at home. Therefore, the significantly higher level of shopping convenience could be the reason for this group of respondents to have a significantly greater or similar extent of "benefits outweighing the costs" as compared to the respondents living in the surroundings. Therefore, developers could improve such developments through reducing the noise disturbances and traffic congestions through building design and better management so as to make such developments more attractive to potential home buyers.