Analyzing the characteristics of the residential relocation phenomenon through the willingness of households to move

To face the challenges of reducing the footprint of daily travel, a sustainable solution for cities could be to propose strategies that affect the spatiotemporal structure of travel, by addressing residential location. Understanding how households choose where to live is therefore essential to help politicians and planners encourage people to select their place of residence more wisely in relation to their travel needs. This research aims to define the characteristics of households willing to move, and to examine the reasons given for this choice, using data from two Montreal CMA-wide surveys on changes in habits caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Results show that the household typology has a strong influence on relocation reflection, with young couple households having a lower probability of wanting to stay in their housing than other household types. Proximity to services in the area of residence is also found to have a strong impact on willingness to relocate, good proximity to secondary education and employment fostering the desire to relocate, and good proximity to groceries supporting staying in current housing. Results show that getting closer to nature is the most common reason why households want to relocate.