Outward Population Shifts: Towards a Greater Understanding of Residential Behaviour

Policy prescription in most Western societies has increasingly favoured urban intensification policies in order to ensure a more sustainable development pattern. In particular, it is now widely felt that residential decisions concerning where to live profoundly affect, among other things, environmental pollution, resource use and land and habitat loss. Using the central area of Dublin city as a case study, this paper focuses specifically on garnering a better understanding of the residential behaviour of residents who have moved into new relatively high-density residential environments. This is a group who have made the choice to move into a relatively high-density urban area and hence it will be revealing to assess the motives, preferences and future intentions of this residential population. Findings suggest that the ultimate residential preference of the majority of residents in these areas is for lower density rural and suburban locations which call into question the long term success of urban intensification efforts. Results from a logit model of residential mobility indicate that stage in their life-cycle, satisfaction with both the dwelling and the neighbourhood emerge as significant predictors of respondents intended future mobility patterns.