Measuring the perceived performance of a residential development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether residential buyers' beliefs about the built environment in a specific place influence their willingness to buy in a large‐scale real‐estate development (RED) by developing and testing a new attitude scale. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical study is carried out in two phases. The first phase is a qualitative laddering study to capture the beliefs of potential buyers visiting open sales of apartments on sale in the RED of Frösunda, Sweden. In the second phase, a multivariate analysis is carried out to identify and measure factors that have an influence on their willingness to buy. Findings – Five factors are found that describe buyers' beliefs about the built environment: urban environment, architecture, relaxation, safety and liveliness. Buyers' and non‐buyers' attitudes towards these factors vary depending on the characteristics of the built environment. The means‐end chain model and laddering technique proves useful in eliciting beliefs that describe how a particular place is perceived by potential buyers. Research limitations/implications – These findings stem from one case study and a retest should be made using an independent sample to assess the generalisation of the scale. Originality/value – This paper demonstrates novel research using the laddering technique, how real‐estate buyers' attitudes and their evaluation of performance of the built environment vary depending on location. Practitioners will have a new tool for RED, if the RED scale proves to be broadly applicable to access real‐estate buyers' evaluation of the performance of a residential development.