The influence of family members on housing purchase decisions

Abstract

Families and households make up a significant proportion of the real estate market. There is, however, little information in mainstream real estate literature on the impact of family behaviour on real estate decisions. This paper clarifies some of these issues by analysing and expanding on many of the findings from the marketing literature, in particular the topic of influence between different family members in the purchase of a new home. This paper presents some important issues to be considered when examining family decision‐making. These include the roles played by different family members and their influence at different stages of the decision‐making process. It also reports on the findings of a study involving a series of in‐depth interviews with real estate agents to determine their perception of the family decision‐making process in relation to a house purchase decision. This culminates in a conceptual framework on family decision making specifically for the purchase of residential real estate, before discussing the implications of these findings to the general real estate market, including service, promotion and valuation.