An optimization approach for existing home seller-buyer matching

Abstract

An optimisation approach for the existing home seller–buyer matching problem is proposed for the Chinese real estate market. In this approach, sellers’ reservation and ideal prices, buyers’ offer prices and preference orderings, and broker’s estimated prices on the existing homes are considered. Sellers’ satisfaction degree functions on trade prices are constructed using sellers’ reservation and ideal prices on the existing homes. Buyers’ satisfaction degree functions on trade prices are constructed using buyers’ offer prices and broker’s estimated prices on the existing homes. A trade price is determined based on the seller’s and buyer’s satisfaction degree functions for each potential matching pair. The properties of this trade price are discussed. Buyers’ satisfaction degree functions on preference orderings are also constructed. A buyer’s satisfaction degree on a transaction is obtained by integrating the buyer’s satisfaction degrees on trade prices and on preference orderings. A matching model maximising the weighted sum of the sellers’ and buyers’ satisfaction degrees is built and solved to determine the desirable matching results. An example is presented to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach. Some criteria are defined and used to measure the performance of the proposed approach.

Keywords:

• Seller–buyer matching
• satisfaction degree functions
• matching models
• real estate