Buying a Dream Home – Considerations of Residential Property Consumers in Malaysia

Abstract

The objective of the study is to investigate the key factors affecting consumer decision making on purchase of residential properties in Malaysia. A conceptual framework which is developed based on review of previous literature and then is tested on a sample of 150 respondents. A self-administrated survey was carried out based on the convenience sampling to uncover the impacts of these selected factors using correlation and regression analysis through SPSS 21. The study finds out a strong association between top three factors which are financial, neighborhood, and location factor and consumers decision making of residential property. The other two factors namely features and demo-graphical factors have weaker association. It is also found that there is a moderate impact on decision making of consumers according to different demographics consisting of gender, age, marital status, monthly income and education level. This research is useful for purchasers of residential property, private and common sectors such as investors, developers and local government. It creates deeper understanding of consumer behavior and preferences towards purchase of residential properties particularly in Malaysian context.

Keywords: decision making, residential property market, Malaysia, consumer behavior