Perceived Risk & Intention to Invest Through Online Real Estate Sites

The research aims to identify how perceived risk tends to affect the intention to invest through online real estate sites. It also tends to identify the mediating role of investing attitude of the investors and their brand equity related to those sites. Survey approach was used to gather and compile all the data, and hypotheses were tested through the structural equation modeling technique. The outcomes revealed a negative role played by economic, functional, time and social risk on the intention of investors to invest through online real estate sites. The five different kinds of perceived risk showed a negative influence on investing attitude and brand equity except for social risk which positively influenced brand equity and investing attitude. Investing attitude and brand equity cause a positive change in investors’ intentions to invest. In addition to it, investing attitude and brand equity of online real estate sites significantly mediates the linkage between all types of perceived risk and investors’ investment intentions. Online real estate sites can use this model to determine how different investors perceive risk related to real estate sites and in turn work on these factors to increase their intentions for investment which ultimately is the primary basis of actual investment. There have not been many studies related to investment through online real estate sites. Especially in Pakistan, no such study that involved the investors’ intentions to invest through online real estate sites had been conducted earlier. Brand Equity of online real estate sites is also a variable which has been studied for the first time in this work with intentions to invest. Thus, this study presents the first confirmation of this model within the online real estate industry.