KTH Architecture and the Build Environment Department of Real Estate and Construction Management Thesis no: 98 A study on housing preference of young households using stated-preference approach Author: Tutor: Hoang Thi Huong Lan Lars Silver Stockholm 2011 MASTER OF SCIENCE THESIS Title A study on housing preference of young households using stated-preference approach Author Hoang Thi Huong Lan Department Department of Real Estate and Construction Management Supervisor Lars Silver ABSTRACT The isssue of housing preference has been widely researched in housing literature, because it provides valuable information for the planning and development of housing for various residential groups with different needs. In Vietnam, the issue has not received proper attention from scholars and developers though the local housing market is going through a phase of rapid development and transformation. This thesis examines housing preference of young household in the capital city Hanoi with focus on condominiums in new urban areas, due to strong demand of the residential group for the specific type of housing. The thesis employed a stated-preference approach with application of direct measurement and conjoint analysis methods to answer research question.
A total of 92 responses were collected by mean of questionnaires delivered to customers who visited two real-estate agents in Hanoi. Analysis of the empirical data shows that, households are most concerned about developers’ commitments and basic quality of the housing units.They appreciate child-friendly qualities of the living environment, as well as child-friendly facilities and services. The analysis also reveals that price is the most influential attribute to households’ preference, followed by location and floor area. Of the households, majority prefer living close to city centers in order to have good access to jobs, schools, health-care and recreational services; while a small portion choose to live further from city center to get better living conditions, larger space, and lower price.
The preferences are then discussed in connection to current conditions of Hanoi urban areas in order to give implications for urban planning policies and new housing projects. 2 ACKNOWLEGEMENT This Master Thesis has been conducted at the Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Nguyen Minh Triet (Real-estate broker, Detech Land), and Mrs.
Tran Bao Huong (Marketing Executive, Vincom Property Trading Center) for their knowledge and support in doing the research. I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Lars Silver, for his creative guidance, valuable comments, and precious encouragement throughout the writing of this thesis. Thanks to him, I have got a very good direction for the thesis from the beginning, and I was able to look at the research issue from a much broader perspective. In addition, I would like to thank all the lecturers of the Department of Real Estate and Construction Management for the knowledge they passed on to me, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, for giving me the chance to attain the priceless knowledge.
Last but not least, I would like to show my appreciation to my family and friends for their love and support; and special gratefulness to my mom, for always praying for me and giving me inspiration and strength to pursue my goals. Stockholm, May 2011 Hoang Thi Huong Lan 3 TABLE OF CONTENT TABLE OF CONTENT. 4 TABLE OF FIGURES. 5 LIST OF TABLES.
Young households and housing market. Aims and objectives. VIETNAMESE HOUSING MARKET AND CONSUMERS’ CONSTRAINTS. Preference on housing characteristics.
The role of demographics and socioeconomics in housing preference. Motivational determinants of homebuyers’ preference formation. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS. Preference for various attributes.
Insights from the analysis. Implication for policy makers, developers and marketers. Limitations and recommendations for further research. 58 TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Homebuyers’ preference for groups of housing attributes.
24 Figure 2: Relative importance of condominium attributes. 35 Figure 3: Relative importance of building attributes. 37 Figure 4: Relative importance of local amenities and services. 38 Figure 5: Relative importance of location attributes.
39 Figure 6: The influence of each attribute to overall preference. 40 Figure 7: Job density in Hanoi (Pham, 2011). 47 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Attributes and attribute levels. 30 Table 2: Respondents' demographic features.
33 Table 3: Conjoint analysis’s outcome. 39 Table 4: Total utility of the hypothetical profiles. 42 Table 5: The most favorite housing profiles. Background Residential market in urban areas in Vietnam is expanding at a very fast pace.
Thanks to economic growth and rapid urbanization, housing spending has been increasing drastically in the last decade. At the same time, investment in housing projects has soared up to fill in the enormous shortage, which is estimated at 20 millions housing units in total (Vietnam Housing Forecast to 2013, 2010). As a result of the overwhelming demand and housing scarcity, good sales are viable for developers without heavy investment in market research. Meanwhile, numerous constraints on real-estate market, financial market, legal system as well as transaction process are making home-ownership very hard to attain.
Homebuyers become less demanding in their purchase, and developers are not very eager to study buyers’ needs. The issue of households/dwellers’ preference thus does not get much attention from developers as well as researchers in Vietnam. Most commercial reports just slightly “tap” the issue. And to the author’s knowledge, there are barely comprehensive studies on housing choice, housing preference, and decision-making process of homebuyers in local context.
This soon needs to be changed. Numerous projects have began construction and a large amount of apartment buildings will come on the market over the next few years (Vietnam Housing Forecast to 2013, 2010). Consumers require better-fitting dwellings, thus competition is anticipated to be significantly higher. The urgent need for better market efficiency calls for a better understanding of homebuyers’ choice and preference.
Besides, Vietnamese residential market, with its distinctive legal framework and rapid transformation, has shown many problems in urban planning. Studies on residential preference may possibly provide good input to crack some of these problems in urban planning practice. Young households and housing market The target of this paper is housing attributes favoured by young households (households in which the head is younger than 35) for condominiums in Vietnamese new urban areas, due to the high and rapid growing demand of this group for this type of housing. According to the 2009 Vietnam population and housing census (2010), population living in urban areas accounts for 29.6% of total population, and increases rapidly at 3.4% were living in permanent dwellings while the rest living in semi- permanent, temporary and simple ones without proper housing facilities.
The country has young population, of which 65 percent of about 85 million people are younger than 35. The proportion of people who are married at the age under 40 are very high, and the number of young 6 households are increasing 2. Smaller size families (2-4 people) are dominant in urban areas (76%). Demand for housing of this group, therefore, is enormous.
Due to very high price housing as well as the lack of reasonably priced rental accommodations, many young people and young households have to live in their parental home, whereas a minority have houses purchased by parents (Gough & Tran, 2009). Having their own houses is the desire of most people living in urban areas, for both financial and cultural reasons. Financially, the cost of rental housing is a substantial burden for average income households (The 2009 Vietnam population and housing census, 2010); besides, the rapid rise in housing price makes homeownership much more pricey, but also provides good capital gain. Culturally, homeownership is a symbol of settlement and wealth of a household, while rental housing is seen as temporary and unstable.
Most young households, therefore, tend to spend a significant part of their savings on buying a dwelling rather than hiring one. As income is increasing, young professionals move out from their parents’ houses after getting married and buy a condominium in urban areas or a small house in surburbs (ADB , 2007). This new trend is emerging regardless of the long-time tradition that the eldest or the only son must live with the parents. Besides, the mobility happens along with the urbanization process and the migration of households to cities also contribute to enormous demand for housing.
It is estimated that there is a need for 60 million square meter of urban residential space, almost double the current stock (Brooke, 2008). The increase in average income over the last decade as well as the popularity of dual-earner family pattern in Vietnamese society are favourable premises for young households to afford an apartment. Young households are also more open to banking sevices and loans compared to the old generation (McKinsey&Company, 2008), which provide them with more flexible options to finance their housing. Among many housing options, condominiums in new urban areas (NUAs) are favored by many young households.
NUA is a distinctive urban development model in Vietnamese market, which promotes the development of a complete infrastructure system and public facilities in conjunction with mix-used residential constructions. Introduced in Vietnam in the late 1990s, NUA projects have become one of the main sources of housing in big cities. The model offers various advantages over the traditional housing types, such as lower price, good infrastructure with various facilities and services, which are suitable for the needs of young households. For these reasons, demand of young households for condominium properties in NUAs has been increasing massively in the last few years.
Residential preference of households for this specific type of housing, therefore, makes an interesting topic for research. Aims and objectives This thesis aims to conduct a survey on housing preference of young households in Vietnamese new urban areas, with the objectives of examining desired housing attributes as well as preferred housing profiles of condominium buyers, and providing some implications for new condominium projects. The research is confined to preference of households who want to buy new condominiums in NUAs in the capital city Hanoi. As the second largest city in Vietnam with population of 6.5 million, Hanoi has the most active real-estate market nationwide, which represents most of typical housing issues of Vietnamese metropolitan cities.
An investigation of young households’ preference in Hanoi therefore would be helpful for various actors on the housing market. Research question A research question is formulated to guide the research and clarify research problem: “What are the preferable attributes of young households for condominiums in new urban areas in Hanoi, Vietnam?” The research employs a stated-preference approach with application of direct measurement and conjoint analysis to examine households’ preference for various attributes. The research result is expected to contribute to a better understanding of housing choice and preference of people in Vietnam; which may be beneficial to residential developers, marketers and policy makers. The author also hopes the study would raise the interest among researchers on this topic, which will result in much broader and deeper research.
Research layout The thesis is organized as follows: The second chapter makes a sketch of Vietnamese residential market and major constraints that homebuyers generally encounter, which serves as a background for the understanding of homebuyers’ preference. The third chapter presents a review of some studies on housing preference, and a conceptual framework developed by the author. The fourth chapter describes research approach and the methods used for data collection and data analysis. The fifth chapter presents and analyses the findings of the survey.
The sixth chapter discusses the main results of the analysis; and finally, the concluding chapter answers the research question and gives some recommendations for further research. VIETNAMESE HOUSING MARKET AND CONSUMERS’ CONSTRAINTS More than 20 years after the formation of its real-estate market, Vietnam has observed rapid growth of both residential and commercial sectors. However, during the short history, buyers’ needs and demands have not been a matter of concern for developers.