ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the opportunities and challenges facing behavioural housing studies. Housing is a multidimensional concept. It involves not only the physical structure of houses and their surroundings, but also the interactions between their occupiers and the built and natural environment. That fact that ‘house’ and ‘home’ are often used interchangeably in the literature is a good indication of how wide the range of topics are that are covered under housing studies. Environmental psychology, a closely related area, has seen significant development in recent years. However, the housing sector is probably one of the most challenging fields in which to conduct behavioural research. As housing decisions and policies have strong social and cultural dimensions, existing behavioural findings using such an unrepresentative sample need to be closely scrutinised before being applied to housing studies.
