Ranking residential locations based on neighborhood sustainability and family profile

Abstract

ABSTRACT Neighborhood characteristics increase human well-being and happiness and is becoming a key criterion for residential location decisions nowadays. This paper proposes a tool to measure neighborhood characteristics, especially those that increase its sustainability, and to rank neighborhoods based on different residents’ profiles. The proposed ranking procedure, based on multiple decision criteria, combines the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) with a method that assigns preference weights to different Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) profiles. In order to illustrate the suitability and properties of the proposed framework, the case of a medium-sized city in northern Spain is presented. Five different resident or family profiles are defined and the different residential locations are ranked taking into account different sustainability neighborhood criteria. The obtained relative proximity index can be interpreted as an adequacy index in terms of neighborhood quality of live and sustainability. The proposed procedure can be a very valuable tool for real estate agents, construction companies or urban planners. All of them can make different uses of the tool, either to provide a service better adapted to the client or, in the case of urban planners and managers, to make projections and evaluate alternatives or ex-ante policies.