Happiness and High-rise Living: Sentiment Analysis of Geo-Located Twitter Data in Hong Kong’s Housing Estates

Abstract

The high-rise housing, a largely unfavorable housing type in Western context (Turkington et al. 2004; Jacobs 1961), is considered a success in Asia (Castells et al. 1990). Researchers argue that a high-rise housing estate, if properly designed and managed, can be a satisfactory solution for high-density cities (Yeh 2000; Yuen et al. 2006); systematic evidence supportive of the above arguments are rare (Turkington et al. 2004). Questions remain as whether high-rise living promotes or degrades happiness? What are the physical attributes that are linked to occupant sentiment in high-rise housing estates? We used sentiment analysis of Twitter data as a measure of occupant satisfaction with the living environment. Data were collected between May and June 2016 within 487 major housing estates in Hong Kong, covering a variety of building forms, density, and other built environment attributes while controlling for demographic, social and economic profiles. Results show that the design of high-rise buildings matter: the Twin-Towers and T-shaped buildings, both were popular housing types in the 70s, correlated with negative sentiment tones. Density, measured in units/ha, showed positive correlation with happy sentiment. Property age, block size, loan-to-income ratio, employment, and occupation were also correlated with sentiment tones. Findings have implication for urban planning and design.