GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS X 40 Volume-5, Issue-2, Feb - 2016 • ISSN No 2277 - 8160 IF : 3.62 | IC Value 70.36 Research Paper Commerce Management The Acquirer’s Preference in the Purchase of Housing Property with Reference to Coimbatore N.Jayakumar Research Scholar, Dept of Management, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore - 641 021. Dr. R Velmurugan Associate Professor, Dept of Commerce, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore - 641 021. The real estate sector in India is witnessing a rapid growth in the residential, commercial and industrial segments. Real estate development, once restricted to bigger cities, has shown marked progress in smaller cities and towns owing to the availability of bank loans, higher earnings and improved standard of living. Due to the changing demographic profile in India, there has been a steady decline in the portion of households living in rented premises. To a certain extent, this may be attributed to rising income levels, making the situation conducive to the buyers to purchase a property for self use as they are currently staying in rented houses. Thus, the study focuses on the social attributes and financial attributes in the acquirer’s preference with regard to the purchase of the housing property. ABSTRACT KEYWORDS : Housing preference, Real estate, Social attributes, Financial Attributes, Purchase decisions Introduction Real estate in India continues to be a favoured destination globally for investors, developers and non-resident Indians (NRIs), driven largely by investor-friendly government policies and increasing globalisation. The second largest employment generation sector after agriculture, real estate contributes about 6.3 per cent to India’s gross domestic product (GDP). The foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector is ex- pected to touch US$ 25 billion in the next 10 years from US$ 4 billion in 2013. According to Census 2001, 187 million houses have been reported to be used for residence or residence-cum-other use by about 192 mil- lion households. Thus, more than one household has been reported from some of the houses. The condition of nearly 94 million of these houses has been reported as being ‘Good’, nearly 83 million as ‘Liva- ble’ and 10 million as ‘Dilapidated’. This large number of households living in ‘Dilapidated’ houses surely needs immediate attention. As per the analysis of the Technical Group of National Housing Bank (NHB), a subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), it was estimated that the housing shortage in India was at 18.78 million with 95% shortage in Economically Weaker Section (EWS)/ Low Income Group (LIG) seg- ments in 2012. The real estate sector in India is witnessing a rapid growth in the res- idential, commercial and industrial segments. Real estate develop- ment, once restricted to bigger cities, has shown a marked progress in smaller cities and towns owing to the availability of bank loans, higher earnings and improved standard of living. A study commis- sioned by HUDCO, which was carried on by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, to examine the impact on GDP and em- ployment owing to the investment in the housing sector, had found that the housing sector was ranked third amongst the 14 major sec- tors in terms of direct, indirect and induced investment in all sectors of economy. Due to the changing demographic proile in India, there has been a steady decline in the portion of households living in rented premises. To a certain extent, this may be attributed to rising income levels. How- ever, with fewer properties available on rent today and an increase in the rents being charged on tenants, consumers have increasingly been investing in property. Factors such as increase in the standard of living of consumers and greater availability of inancing for consumers are expected to fuel a further decline in the number of households renting premises (CRIS INFAC Annual Review on Housing Industry). The present situation is conducive to the home buyers to purchase a property for self use as they are currently staying on rent. Home buy- ers want to buy property to meet the growing family requirements and for long term investment. But the basis of their preference of housing property is not apparent, which made the researcher to take up the present study. Thus, the study focuses on the social attributes and inancial attributes in the acquirer’s preference with regard to the purchase of the housing property. Review of literature Housing Sentiment Index (HSI) (2014): The survey shows that of the prospective buyers 71% prefer apartments (HSI 116) while 14% pre- fer villas (HSI 105) and 12% prefer land/plot (HSI 128). Compared to the previous quarter, HSI for apartments has risen over 9%, while HSI for villas has dropped by 7%. Of those who prefer lats, 75% intend to purchase for use as residence while 72% of villa buyers intend to pur- chase with the intention of staying with family. Of the land owners, 50% intend to purchase with the intention of residing with their fam- ilies after construction of property on the land. More than half (53%) of prospective buyers live in rented accommodation (HSI 115), 30% live in their own houses (HSI 115) and 16% live with parents/relatives (HSI 120). Abdul Hamid Mar Iman (2012): The results of his study show that the most pertinent attributes of high-cost residential properties trade-of by the respondents are type of property, design and features, price, built-up area, location, and reputation of the developer. Together, these attributes explain about 74% of the buyers expressed utility of the product purchased. By using a hold-out sample of respondents, a conjoint analysis has predicted the buyers expressed utility with a reasonable level of accuracy. Jain and Mandot, (2012) have observed that demographic criteria, name- ly age distribution, gender, marital status, qualiication, occupation, num- ber of households, educational level and annual income perform as main factors that have a high impact on property purchasing activities. Luti, (2010): Marital status afects the buyers’ decision making process. The marital status of diferent buyers such as single, married, single moth- er, single father result in diferent preferences. This will inluence the indi- vidual’s basic needs and restrict his capacity or budget to purchase hous- ing units. Married people usually prefer to have their own houses. Swan, (1995): has stated that age could identify the demand in housing market. According to him, people above 65 years old are re- luctant to buy a house even if they can aford it. On the other hand, young people are more prone to buying a property. Nevertheless, those under 30 years old are less likely to commit themselves to purchasing property since many will not have attained their inan- cial stability.