Residential preference

Residential preference for people in smaller towns is shifting to multi-storied apartments, writes Gaurav Munjal, TNN, 10 Mar 07

Rising purchasing power, desire for better lifestyle coupled with changing preferences have seen consumers demand the best in the market and real estate is no exception. Though the choice to live in an apartment in a multi storied building in metropolitan cities is out of compulsion yet people in cities of Tier-II and Tier-III are opting for a dwelling in the apartments due to better maintenance facility and security cover offered by them.
This fact about the changing preferences of the residents of smaller cities has been brought to light by the study, “Consumer psychographics of group housing residents in Tier-II and Tier-III cities”, conducted by info EDGE — a statistical survey research and data analysis firm based in Gurgaon.
Other aspects such as better standard of living at relatively cheaper cost and availability of pooled facilities like community centre and gymnasium were the next in priority list. This reveals the growing health consciousness among the populace, which cuts across gender and age-groups.
The hitherto untalked about considerations such as the presence of like minded people in the neighbourhood figured in the wish list to be sought in the group housing societies.
The survey further revealed that businessmen formed the largest chunk of people (with 40%) who preferred moving to the group housing society. Salaried professionals in the government jobs formed the next higher percentage (32%) who prefer living in the group housing societies. Salaried professionals in the private sector and self employed followed suit with 18% and 10% respectively.
Interestingly, though modern amenities like a modular kitchen does not rank very high in the wish list of customers in the preference survey — ranked 5th — yet these are highly preferred in the satisfaction survey — ranked 2nd. This implies that though the modern amenities do not figure prominently in the consumers mind at the moment and he would carry on with his present day life style for a couple of years yet he would soon look out for these avenues for satisfying himself. A builder should thus think it proper whether to go for short term gains by not stressing upon the amenities or opt for long term gains by including them and keep the demand gates open for his residential complex.
Around thirty percent of respondents preferred a semi-furnished flat whereas 54% respondents wanted a fully furnished house as against just 16% who wanted to go in for a raw flat and furnish it themselves. The exorbitant price charged by the developers for finishing the house replete with fixtures works as a major deterrent as percentage of respondents swinged in favour of non furnished houses once the price of furnishings were disclosed to the customers enabling them to conduct a detailed scrutiny.
This implies that though the idea of buying a furnished house sounds appealing to customers but the developer should not aim for raking in profits from this avenue. Instead, furnishings should be provided at competitive prices as a goodwill gesture for long term customer satisfaction
The study included market segmentation for identifying potential customers in correlation with socio-economic factors, collecting primary data to gauge customer preferences, their attitudes to loan and to the designs of kitchen and bathrooms. Besides this, a satisfaction study was also conducted in some cities to isolate the factors affecting overall satisfaction of residents of group housing societies and identify key drivers of customer satisfaction.