Date of Award

1-1-2001

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Business and Economics

Department

-

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

The recent economic slowdown has posted greater challenges to the developers. Likewise, general consumer sentiment towards the housing market is bullish and the new residential development would further increase the residential stock in the country. The challenges for developers are to produce the kind of houses that meet the buyer's demand by studying the market first before embarking on any project. Therefore, the objectives of this study are as followings:

• To identify factors that influence house buyers in their choice of house;

• To study the housing needs of the house buyers;

• To examine the search behaviour of house buyers;

• To explore the most effective channels in reaching the house buyers; and

• To explore the use of Internet in searching of house Information.

An eight-page close-ended survey questionnaire was used for the study. A total of 350 questionnaires were randomly distributed and the response rate was at 87.43% (306 copies). The questionnaire was only distributed to respondents who own a house, and was self.-admlnistered. The questionnaire studied the respondents' house information, the perceptions of respondents towards the choice of house, the housing needs of the house buyers, the search behaviour of house buyers and lastly the demographic profiles of respondents. The research revealed that the most popular type of residence in local housing market were double-storey terrace house and apartment which priced below RM150,000. Besides, all the variables grouped property design/characteristic, distance variables/location, environmental/neighbourhood, financial variables and developer's track record appeared important in influencing house buyers in their choice of house. Further analysis by ranking and comparison found out that location of the house is the most influential factor. Respondents revealed that owned a house, not rent was the single most influencing needs to own a house. The most popular channel in looking for an ideal house was through the advertisement in newspaper, while the use of Internet in housing search was the most unpopular among the others. Respondents normally spent more than 4 months looking for their ideal home and conducted four to six inspections prior to conclude their buying decision. Nevertheless, further analysis revealed that most of the time both Malay and Chinese respondents were indifferent in their choice of house and search behaviour. Overall, respondents view the information acquired during the home searching process is useful in concluding their decision before coming to the point of purchase.

Initial

snms

Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A) -- Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, 2002.

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