To move or extend? A study of housing behaviour in metropolitan Perth, 1979

Summary

Making home extensions is considered by many Australian families to be an alternative to moving. Existing models of housing adjustment behaviour do not fully explore this possibility. Using these models as a base, this paper begins by outlining various theoretical relationships that may exist between the decisions to move or to extend. It was expected that extenders and movers would have different levels of residential satisfaction and distinguishable socio‐economic profiles. The expected differences, however, did not emerge in survey findings. It is concluded that a better understanding of housing behaviour might be achieved if people's housing attitudes and ambitions were studied before their actual behaviour was investigated.