The incremental of residential cost and the impact of homebuyer preferences in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur

The house price in Malaysia is expected to continue to rise due to several factors that are been examined throughout the studies. The escalating price of house have constraint the ability of the potential homebuyer to own a residential. However, homebuyers not only constrained by the affordability for homeownership, but they also have the issue to select the appropriate choice of house preference to suit with their needs. Through this studies, two categories of factors were investigated which are the factors influencing the increase in house price and the elements affecting the housing preferences among the homebuyers. The chosen target respondent for this research are homebuyers and the research was held in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur. There are two methods used for data collection which are primary data using questionnaire survey and secondary data from literature review. Based on the literature review, there are six major factors that have been identified that influence the increase in house price as well as affecting the housing preferences which are financial, economic condition, location, neighbourhood, house type and design and house quality and construction technology. There are 150 of respondents were collected during the survey. The data then analysed using the statistical software (SPSS) through descriptive analysis to determine the frequency and mean value. Through the finding, majority respondents were agreed that all the factors stated contributes to the increase in residential costs and housing preferences. For the increase in residential cost, factor location was ranked highest and for the housing preferences financial and location were ranked highest. This finding has very important implications for the homebuyers in helping them on the decision-making process as well as to government for implementing the policies to reduce the house price and constructing the right house suit with the needs of homebuyers.