Urban Housing Preferences and Public Acceptance of Modular Housing Across Different City Typologies in Indonesia

<ns5:p>Background Modular housing has the potential to be a strategic solution to the housing affordability crisis in Indonesia’s urban areas. However, the extent of public acceptance of this approach is not yet well understood, particularly across diverse urban typologies. Methods This study identifies and compares the factors influencing the acceptance of modular housing in four cities with different urban typologies Jakarta, Surabaya, Sidoarjo, and Malang through a structured survey of 300 respondents selected using a combination of purposive and quota sampling. The research instrument was validated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), yielding AVE and CR values above the required thresholds, with model fit indices meeting the criteria across all cities. Relative Weight Analysis (RWA) was applied to identify the relative contributions of seven predictors to the acceptance of modular housing. Results The results show that Construction & Housing Quality is the most consistent and dominant predictor of acceptance, ranking first in three of the four cities (Jakarta, Surabaya, and Malang), while Sidoarjo was the sole exception, with Financial Considerations ranking first. Other preference hierarchies varied systematically according to urban typology: Location & Accessibility was the strongest secondary factor in Jakarta; Ownership & Flexibility stood out in Sidoarjo; Construction & Housing Quality was most concentrated in Malang; and Surabaya exhibited a holistic and relatively balanced distribution. Developer Credibility consistently ranked as the factor with the lowest weight in nearly all cities. Conclusion Although the acceptance of modular housing is influenced by a number of similar preference factors, the priority of these factors differs according to urban typology. These findings introduce the concept of typology preference alignment as a new analytical framework and have practical implications for developers and policymakers in the development of the modular housing sector in Indonesia.</ns5:p>