Intentions to move, residential preferences and mobility behaviour: a longitudinal perspective

This book is about the discrepancy between individuals’ stated intentions to move and their actual mobility behaviour. Do people move when they say they are willing to do so? And if so, to what extent do they realise or adjust their initial residential preferences? Does the spatial context matter to the extent to which mobility intentions and residential preferences are realised? How important are anticipated and unanticipated life course changes to the mobility behaviour of intended movers? And do unanticipated life events trigger people to move unexpectedly? Through five complementary studies, this book seeks to uncover the mechanisms contributing to behavioural inconsistencies in the individual mobility decision-making processes. Using an innovative longitudinal data set in which housing survey data from a large-scale sample for the Netherlands are enriched with longitudinal register data, it is shown that many people do not behave according to their prior stated attitude towards moving. Most intended movers do not change residence within two years and some people move despite having no initial intention to do so. Anticipated and unanticipated life course changes may provide an additional or unexpected stimulus to change residence. The results also demonstrate the relevance of the context in which residential choices are made. A high housing market pressure is accompanied by a lower rate of success in two ways: both intentions to move and residential preferences are less frequently realised.