Factors influencing house acquisition behavior among Muslim generation Y in Malaysia

Abstract

House is the most important basic need for the human survival, however many people especially those who are categorised in the category of generation Y do not acquire a house due to various factors (internal salient belief factors, personal factor, and extra factor). In accordance, the volume of residential transaction and homeownership rate among youths in Malaysia has been decreasing for the past few years. It is proven as the number of residential property transaction has dropped from 272,669 transactions in 2012 to 243,190 transactions in 2022 to 108,955 transactions in quarter 3 2023. Thus, it is important to examine the behavior of generation Y towards house acquisition in Malaysia. This study focuses on Muslim Generation Y in West Malaysia, specifically on those who have purchased a home and those who have not. The research proposes to examine the internal salient belief factors (attitude and perceived religiosity on property), personal factors (lifestyles) as well as external factors (house features, house location, house price, house financing, and government support) in influencing house acquisition behavior among Muslim Generation Y. As such, this study integrates two theoretical approaches which are Attitude-Behavior-Context (ABC) theory and adoption of Islamic consumer behavior theory. The research framework consists of 13 hypotheses that predict eight direct relationship and five moderation effects. The data was collected using online survey and physical survey, 387 valid data was involved in testing the research model. SPSS 27 was used for data analysis. For direct testing, the empirical results of this study have revealed that attitude, lifestyles, location, and financial factors (house price and financing factors) influence house acquisition behavior significantly while perceived religiosity on property, house feature and government support did not. The findings also revealed that all moderation effects of house feature, location, government support and financial factors (house price and financing factors) through attitude influence house acquisition behavior significantly. The study findings are believed to contribute significantly to the theory, methodology, and empirical practice. More importantly, these insights will help industry players to strengthen and create sustainable marketing strategies to attract more Muslim Generation Y to acquire a house.