Housing Market In Times Of Crisis The Increasing Importance Of Consumerís Preferences

For years the owner-occupied housing market had proven to be a solid investment for consumers in the Netherlands. By buying a dwelling, a home-owner could not only provide oneself a good accommodation, but could also guarantee a capital gain. When the consumer sold their dwelling, in most cases, the selling price was (much) higher than the original price. The recent economic crisis however has made it clear that a capital gain cannot be taken for granted anymore. The quality of the dwelling has become of more importance if someone considers buying a dwelling. With the decrease of demands for new owner-occupied dwellings and the increasing amount of owner-occupied dwellings entering the market, consumers can afford to be more critical when it comes to purchase a dwelling. Today, when a dwelling does not match the consumerís whishes, the consumer is less likely to buy the dwelling. This paper enters into two research methods to examine consumer preferences. The first method is the most common. This method looks separately at every feature of the dwelling and composes afterwards the optimal dwelling. The second method is the so called ëconjunctí method. This method is used to explore complete dwelling profiles at once. For the research presented in this paper both methods are used to examine consumer preferences for one and the same residential estate in Eindhoven. It concerns an apartment complex especially developed for people over 55 years. This apartment complex is constructed in 2008 and sales started in the spring of that year. A few apartments were sold at that time, but after the start of the credit crunch the sales stopped completely. The paper starts with a short introduction of the features of this apartment and of its market position. Secondly both methods will be explained. Next the findings of the used methods in regard to the Eindhoven case will be discussed. In the final paragraph the findings will be compared and evaluated in regard to their implementations for change of policies of the developer(s).