The wheres and hows of residential choice

Abstract

A wide variety of choices and decisions are open to individuals when looking for a place to live: a flat or a house, renting or buying depending on one’s resources and plans; living in a city centre to enjoy its buzz, or in a certain district to have a school close by, or on the outskirts in a more village-like setting; and in this last case, how far from urban centres and major access routes? What ultimately are individuals’ preferences? All these questions presuppose looking at how they perceive and evaluate the urban environment so as to better grasp what it is that leads to residential satisfaction. However, it is not the evaluation or satisfaction in itself that is of interest to us here but instead the way in which these factors influence individual decisions.