Improving the Conceptual Design in Residential Development Using the Means-End Chain Approach

Residential development and market analysis is closely related to the question why some people buy in certain residential developments and other not. The reason is obvious if the product is not appreciated by consumers they will search for another alternative which will decrease the estimated market share for a specific residential project. Research concerning the means end chain theory and the laddering technique has been quite extensive in food industry but examples in residential development is rare. This study aims at closing this gap and investigates if we can use knowledge of how people link their experiences of the physical environment in a residential development to functional and psychological consequences and personal values to have an idea of how to build more attractive residential developments in the future to specific target groups. In-depth laddering interviews were made with 32 respondents who visited an open house sale of tenant owned apartment on sale. We hypothesise that there exist a difference between bidders and non-bidders regarding their beliefs of self-relevant consequences and abstract personal values. In our study we did not find any major difference in terminal values, but instrumental values do differ. This is true also for abstract product attributes and functional and psychological consequences. Professional developers and planners were able to usebeliefs of bidders and non-bidders the residential development Frˆsunda, north of Stockholm, Sweden.