Behavioral Intention vs. Actual Purchase: A TPB–EKB Approach to Understanding Real Estate Investment in Tier II Cities

Indore’s swift ascension under India’s Smart Cities Mission, coupled with its repeated acclaim as the nation’s cleanest city, reflects a compelling narrative of urban progress. However, beneath this trajectory lies a persistent and paradoxical gap between the stated intentions of potential investors and their actualized real estate purchases in Tier II cities. In 2024 alone, India’s top seven residential markets witnessed a robust 16% rise in sales value over the previous year, while Indore generated ₹1,125 crore in stamp duty from more than 85,000 property transactions. Yet, relatively restrained price appreciations of 8–10% and the emergence of a discerning, “liveability-driven” buyer cohort reveal latent constraints between aspirational interest and conclusive purchase behavior. This conceptual paper proposes a synthesis of Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Engel–Kollat–Blackwell (EKB) model of consumer decision-making to better illuminate this intention–behavior divide. It aligns TPB’s psychological constructs—attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control—with the EKB model’s five sequential stages, from problem recognition to post-purchase evaluation. The integration is poised to demonstrate how perceived behavioral control and contextual moderators such as PropTech adoption, policy transparency, and digital trust serve as decisive inflection points, especially during the transition from “evaluation of alternatives” to the final “purchase decision.” A systematic literature review of scholarly works from 2000 to 2025, sourced from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, forms the methodological bedrock of this study. Through thematic coding, it seeks to uncover where and why behavioral intentions falter. Preliminary propositions suggest that social norms heavily influence information search, while infrastructural assurance governs ultimate decision-making. This paper aspires to enrich existing theoretical frameworks and offer actionable insights to real estate stakeholders aiming to bridge the chasm between aspiration and action in India’s evolving Tier II property markets.