Consumers’ Choice between Real Estate Investment and Consumption: A Case Study in Taiwan

Real estate has two major characteristics, representing a consumption good and an investment good. Family housing demands are affected by various factors such as family members, the stage that the current house is at in its life cycle, income, location preferences, and so on. To understand which kind of homebuyer backgrounds will increase the proportion of residential investment, this study applies a multinomial logit model to analyze the probability of investment or consumption decisions made by home buyers from different backgrounds in Taiwan. Empirical data show that middle-aged singles and middle-aged couples are less likely to purchase houses to be their personal residence. For young couples and young families, having a personal residence is still a primary consideration, which means that this need is a result of how they are in the early stages of their life cycle when they are not yet financially stable and may expect to have (or already have) children. Families with children show a higher demand for changing residences, which is why full-nest families and three-generation families are more frequently the owners of their personal residence. In addition, the purchase motives of full-nest families include their view of real estate as an investment good, which means that the purchasers have a stable family structure and a degree of financial stability. It also means that with their children growing up, these purchasers exhibit a higher demand for purchasing real estate as an investment the next time they change residence.