Monitoring the resident’s needs: input for the pre-construction stage of rehabilitation projects

The task of maintaining Polish prefabricated housing stock is a challenge due to its scale. These assets are still nearly 50% of the multi-family houses in use. They are in good technical condition. To define the objectives and scope of improvements, the manager needs to account for not only technical merits but also the user/flat owner point of view. As observed in practice, estate managers rarely strive to identify the needs of residents. This study investigates into opinions and needs of inhabitants of a housing estate in Lublin, south-eastern Poland. A series of surveys were carried out at five years intervals to capture their evolution. The questions concerned accessibility, deficiencies in local amenities, the condition of the estate’s infrastructure, buildings and flats, and opinions on priorities of improvement measures. The survey results are intended as input for planning the modernization of the estate.