Neighborhood Environment and Residential Satisfaction in Urban Regeneration: A Critical Review and Future Research Agenda

Urban regeneration is increasingly evaluated not only through physical and economic outcomes but also through residents’ experiences of neighborhood change. This review critically examines empirical research on the relationship between neighborhood environment and residential satisfaction in urban regeneration contexts. Drawing on 64 peer-reviewed studies identified through a structured search of Scopus and the Web of Science Core Collection, the review synthesizes how neighborhood conditions and satisfaction have been conceptualized, measured, and interpreted across different regeneration settings. Six overlapping environmental domains emerge from the literature: housing and infrastructure; accessibility, facilities, and services; public, green, and natural environments; social relations; participation and governance; and maintenance, management, cleanliness, and safety. The evidence shows that physical upgrading alone does not consistently lead to higher residential satisfaction. Its residential effects depend on everyday usability, social relations, participation, management, resident characteristics, regeneration stages, and institutional contexts. The review also identifies persistent conceptual fragmentation, reliance on cross-sectional and perception-based evidence, limited longitudinal comparison, and insufficient attention to nonlinear and heterogeneous responses. Future research should better integrate objective and subjective measures, examine regeneration as a staged process, and strengthen comparative and population-sensitive analysis to support more resident-centered neighborhood planning.