Eija Hasu

Housing decision-making process explained by third agers, Finland: ‘we didn’t want this, but we chose it’

Abstract This paper investigates housing decision-making processes, using ‘third agers’ as a target group. Third agers offer individual and household level explanations to scrutinize the decision-making process in detail, explaining individual processes and negotiations. A cross-sectional qualitative study combining data from three projects, conducted in Helsinki Region, Finland, indicates that the triggers for moving affect the ways preferences are selected and formed as choice criteria. The interview-based data explains negotiations and other forms of information processing throughout the choice process, ending with unexpected choice outcomes. Despite the focus groups’ relative wide-ranging freedom of choice, residents constantly adjust their preferences as choice criteria throughout the decision-making process. Afterwards, coping strategies are adopted to reconcile eventual discrepancies. The paper indicates that the reasons for dissatisfaction are not communicated to the developers or the architects. The results suggest that the residents are not operating as prosumers with influence on housing design and production.