Stakeholder Model Representing Consumer Preferences for Housing in Saudi Arabia

Adequate housing is an important issue for any society; no one can ignore the importance of providing adequate housing for citizens in any country. Purchasing a home is a major investment; it takes a huge part of people’s income. Therefore, it is important to know what in the market is suitable for consumers, to categorise and analyse consumer preferences, and understand their changes in behaviour, looking at the differences in the demographics and the population segment in order to create a better home environment. However, solutions that are not consistent with consumer ambitions and self-concepts will not help to resolve the housing problem or provide satisfaction for consumers. Thus, it is important for policymakers to identify and understand both the consumers’ preferences and the housing problem in order to devise effective spatial policies to manage housing demand. Housing in Saudi is an interesting and strategically important issue, because of the low level of home ownership, and the fact that the available homes do not match consumer demand. It would be interesting to understand consumer preferences and be able to provide a model clarifying the important home variables, and also to identify the cultural, economic and demographic influences on home buying. This could help stakeholders such as the government, developers and consumers themselves plan suitable homes. This study combines inductive and deductive approaches to investigate the housing problem in Saudi and to identify a suitable model of consumer preferences. Firstly, literature reviews were used to identify theories and put forward the relevant home variables. Secondly, mixed methods were used in the study for data gathering sequentially, by doing quantitative questionnaires in Saudi Arabia (with 752 respondents in the consumer survey and 102 in the professional survey), and qualitative interviews. Moreover, the inferential analysis of the questionnaires clarifies the differences in the answers between the genders, the regions where respondents live, and their occupations, and shows significant difference in some variables. The final home preferences model has been designed by using inductive factor analysis. Furthermore, the result shows differences between the consumers and professionals’ views. As a final phase, the model was validated by conducting a focus group, from which some variables were added to the model.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Liverpool John Moores University

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Algrnas, Mohammad

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mulliner, Emma
• Ross, Andrew

• HD Industries. Land use. Labor

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.24377/LJMU.t.00004479

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk:4479