Assessment of residential location choice behaviour in Bhopal city.

Abstract

The present study explores the responsiveness of various types of parameters, urban residents consider when making residential Location, dwelling type and dwelling ownership decisions in Bhopal city. The central concern in the study is how urban residents make their residential location decisions; the assumption is that faced with urban life challenges such as income limitations they rely on a variety of resources (economic and non-economic) to enable their residential location decisions. Households belonging to the monthly income bracket of [LMIG] 17,000 to 41,999 INR and [HMIG] 42,000 to 85,000 INR were chosen for the study. The objective is to find out the variables that are significant in residential decision making and estimate the level of influence each of the variables exert on residential decision making. Demonstrated through in-depth interviews with 240 heads of households in the identified inner city [High density], intermediate [Medium density] and peri-urban [Low density] residential areas, the study attempts to show how various attributes of Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, Economic & quality attributes of housing stock, neighbourhood characteristics and Travel time & accessibility play a role in the decision-making process of households. A discrete choice model using disaggregate level data was used for exploring the process of decision making for residential location choice, dwelling type and ownership, and calibrated for decision making process. The results highlight that in case of LMIG, much significance is of attributes of accessibility and economic attributes of housing stock, while in case of HMIG, attributes of neighbourhood characteristics plays significant role in deciding residential location, Dwelling type and ownership, apart from Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics The study goes further to suggest how policy level suggestions, learned from these social processes, will contribute to the provision of attractive and competitive locations that will, to an extent, support the objective for more balanced development.