The trade-off between housing, amenities and accessibility

We examine residential location preferences of employed individuals and the trade-offs they make regarding residential environments, amenities, accessibility and commuting time and travel mode.

Understanding the relative importance of these attributes and whether preferences for locations differ among socio-demographic groups in the Netherlands is critical for the effective planning of attractive urban regions. The primary method used in this research is a stated preference experiment. A unique feature of the experiment is the graphical representation of residential locations. We estimate the impact of each attribute of these residential locations, while accounting for the expected heterogeneity in preferences among the respondents. The main findings are that on average individuals with more “urban” preferences regard type of dwelling and commuting distance to be of similar importance while respondents with more “suburban” preferences tend to place higher weight on the type of dwelling. Both types of respondents place similar importance on the monthly housing costs. Additionally, we present results of an analysis on the association of individual and household characteristics of respondents with their preferences.

Ori Rubin, University of Amsterdam
Toon Zijlstra, KiM Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis
Femke Daalhuizen, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency