Understanding Tenants' Choices in the Private Rental Sector in Kolkata: A Stated Preference Approach

Ismail Haque, Jamia Millia Islamia University
Dipendra Nath Das, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Priyank Pravin Patel, Presidency University

This paper examines the plausible variables that shape choices in Kolkata’s rental housing market. Using data from a discrete choice experiment, a joint model of neighborhood and dwelling attribute is estimated within the conditional logit framework. Logit models were estimated for the entire sample and five sub-samples categorized by income, education, age, family composition and current location, with results revealing a non-uniform pattern across them. For the entire sample, neighborhood attributes is accorded higher importance than dwelling related attributes in the tenants’ housing choice decisions. Furthermore, affordability is not the sole factor that influences housing choices. Tenants also consider accessibility (commuting time) and neighborhood security, availability of civic amenities/services, dwelling conditions, and prefer detached homes with large bedrooms in the city’s periphery to living in an apartment building in an inner-core location. In sub-sample estimations, socioeconomic and demographic factors are influential in conditioning tenants’ housing preferences in Kolkata. Our findings suggest that recognizing these choice heterogeneities is critical and the supply of rental housing should be diversified to meet the diverse demands. Additionally, the improvement of neighborhood-level civic services/amenities and housing well-being needs urgent policy interventions to augment rental housing stocks in Kolkata, towards attaining more equitable and sustainable outcomes.

Keywords: Internal Migration and Urbanization, Econometrics

See paper.