Understanding the residential search process in Indian context: analysing decision dimensions for location choice set development

Purpose This study aims to comprehensively explore households’ residential search process by examining various decision dimensions – search tenure, housing typology, search criteria, information sources, search extent and search duration – and identifying factors influencing each. Design/methodology/approach The study area includes Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and Rajarhat Newtown. A retrospective survey was conducted with recently relocated households to investigate their search process. Based on a search process framework from literature, separate logit models were developed to analyse decision dimensions. Findings The study identifies the influence of household typology, size, income, car ownership, origin and education, including travel attitudes, relocation reasons and urgency on decision dimensions. Key findings indicate that households use five dominant search criteria to orient themselves spatially, also affecting the search extent. Moreover, some households enter the housing market without housing typology preferences, exploring all options. Practical implications Choice set development – a critical stage in residential location choice modelling – represents the outcome of household’s search process: the collection of potential locations considered before making a final selection. Traditionally, entire urban area is considered as choice set, but the study’s findings can inform screening rules to tailor choice set to household preferences. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to comprehensively explore the housing search process in India, introducing novel factors like travel attitudes, relocation motivations and urgency. Instead of focusing on specific housing typologies, the authors investigate whether households enter the market with established preferences or not. The authors also examined search criteria households consider to define search space and its impact on search extent.