Purchase intention of sustainable housing and the moderating role of environmental awareness – an application of the theory of planned behavior

The housing industry in Germany is experiencing a profound and multidimensional transformation process, caused by changes in technology, economy, and society. These changes are based on megatrends that have their origin in the global environment. The housing situation is also subject to this transformation process, with the result that housing and location preferences as well as qualitative and quantitative housing needs are changing. In addition to digitalization and socio-demographic changes, growing environmental awareness is a widely discussed megatrend in the relevant literature. Homebuyers are subject to a number of environmental requirements, such as increasing energy efficiency or using renewable energies. However, little is known about the psychological antecedents and the impact of general environmental awareness regarding the purchase intention of sustainable housing.By using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the aim of this study is to identify the effects of attitudes towards the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on the purchase intention of sustainable housing in Germany. Furthermore, the TPB is extended by incorporating environmental awareness as a moderator variable.Based on literature research, a survey is conducted among 1,000 homebuyers in Germany. With the help of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), constructs derived from the relevant literature are first tested for reliability and validity. This is followed by a hierarchical regression analysis which proceeds in three steps. Initially, only the baseline model including control variables is integrated into the regression analysis. Thereafter, the baseline model is extended by constructs of the theory of planned behavior. Lastly, the moderator effect of environmental awareness is integrated to predict the purchase intention of sustainable housing.The results emphasize the importance of environmental awareness in the decision process of purchasing houses. Furthermore, the study provides important implications on which psychological factors affect the intention to purchase sustainable housing in Germany. These results can be used to better predict actual sustainable housing purchase behavior and to better evaluate different environmental factors that determine housing prices.