Modelling the Factors of Neighbourhood Attractiveness Reflected in Residential Location Decision Choices

Abstract

Characteristics of neighbourhoods are important in the decisions of people to move. Such characteristics, if collapsed into a small number of components, enable measures of neighbourhood attractiveness to be derived and the patterns mapped in a GIS. This paper employs this procedure for suburbs across the Brisbane-South East Queensland region, the third largest and a rapidly growing metropolis in Australia, using data collected in a survey of quality of life. Three factors of neighbourhood attractiveness—aesthetic, amenity, and social interaction—are identified. To map those factors, a set of surrogate measures that replace survey data derived subjective importance scores with objective measures derived from a series of GIS data overlays are developed. A factor score coefficient matrix is used to derive a set of parameterised linear equations which permits a spatial representation of the factors across the suburbs comprising the Brisbane-SEQ region. This results in a set of maps which display spatial variations in the attractiveness of suburbs vis a vis the derived dimensions of subjective attractiveness for residential selection by people.JEL Classification: C81, R23