Abstract
This paper considers the measurement of customer satisfaction and quality in new housing. The research so far has identified the fact that customer satisfaction in terms of new housing is more than just the technical quality of the constituent components of a house. Quality in new housing as far as the customer is concerned is very much an overall concept. The research has found when asking purchasers for their overall rating of the quality of their new home that certain service related aspects of the developer could skew the overall rating from very satisfied to very unsatisfied. Whilst there may not be a major difference between the ideas of the developers and those of the customers in terms of technical quality in new housing, it would appear that there is an abyss between the two in terms of perceptions of what contributes overall quality. This perception gap seems to be the problem area, and this gap appears to be more to do with perceptions about service issues than technical issues. This paper looks at some of the ways that other industries have attempted to measure the rather nebulous concept known as customer satisfaction and considers scope for translating them into the housebuilding context. It appreciates this by discussing a range of external issues that have been used outside of construction to interpret quality; and considers their application to defining and measuring quality in new housing.