Background Mass housing with standardized repetitive design has been a prevalent trend of housing provision for low-income families in Iran for the past two decades. One way forward for architecture to overcome such a monotonous environment is to facilitate residents’ personalization which can transform ready-made, uniform dwellings to distinctive, original ones. Thus, this article investigates the various factors that can predict personalization behavior in affordable housing Methods Factors of personalization are categorized into three groups, including housing statuses, dwelling’s physical characteristics, and household demographics. Personalization, as the dependent variable, is also studied according to its three aspects; functions, elements, and settings. The sample consists of 133 households of a case of affordable housing located in Mashhad, Iran. The data are collected mainly through interviews and observation and, then, go through multivariate analysis. Results The results demonstrated that the highest impact on personalization was left by housing statuses, among which anticipated residence was generally the main predictor while being interrelated with ownership type and length of residence. Dwelling’s physical characteristics ranked second except for the preventive function of personalization for which they comprised the principal predictors. Also, household demographics produced minimal effects, merely on instrumental personalization. Conclusions Architecture may rely on personalization and facilitate it in places that are under a resident’s full control, used for essential daily activities, are spacious for intervention, and have high visibility and/or accessibility from outside. Even when these conditions are met, personalization could be strengthened only if the residents have high expectations for a place’s use time.

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