A non-tradeoff decision making model of residential location choice

This paper presents the results of an application of a non-tradeoff decision making model to residential location choice. The model, referred to as an Elimination-by-Aspects model, provides a behaviourally acceptable mechanism for new residents to sift through the large number of alternatives and attributes that are present in residential location decisions. The mechanism deals with complex multi-attribute choices, by following a tree like decision making process. Using the most important attributes first, the decision maker successively eliminates alternatives which fall below a certain level. The model was applied to the location decisions of a number of new residents in outer suburban Melbourne. It was found to provide a good explanation of the decisions. Furthermore the residents' decisions were found to be sensitive to variations in the accessibility to schools, shops and the type of dwelling the respondent could afford.