Factors Influencing the Intention to Purchase Real Estate in Saudi Arabia: Moderating Effect of Demographic Citizenship

Factors affecting the real estate market are of great importance worldwide. This study will investigate the factors influencing Saudis to purchase real estate. The study examine the effect of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavior control and demographics on the intention to purchase real estate. Taking into account that demographics (Citizenship) as a moderator, a total of 450 questionnaires were distributed to respondents in Jeddah. Based on 322 questionnaires collected, the results show that there is a positive significant relationship between Attitude, and Subjective Norm toward the intention to purchase real estate, while the Perceived Behavior Control has not. demographic (Citizenship) were found not to have a moderating effect on the relationship between independents and the customers' intention to purchase real estate among Saudis.


Introduction
The focus is on Saudi Arabia real estate market for a number of reasons.Firstly, Saudi Arabia is a pivotal country with the largest real estate market in the oil-rich Gulf.In addition, secondly, around 45% of the population is below age 20 years.This and the rapid urbanization rate combined to increase the growth which already happening at real estate market (Opoku & Abdul-Muhmin, 2010).In Saudi Arabia, discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the late 1930s besides the increasing of oil prices during the 1970s, shifted traditional Saudi society to lifestyles of developed societies (Mubarak, 1995).Prior to 1970, the largest segment of the population was rural.Since 1970, the population of Saudi Arabia has boomed dramatically and experienced a new trend, that is, the shift of the population from rural to urban areas (Al-Hathloul, 1995).Especially the major urban centers witnessed unmatched growth (Mubarak, 1995).Between 1950 and1992, the level of urbanization in Saudi Arabia increased parallel with tremendous growth for the population for the same period.For example, the rate of population that live in urban areas increased from 10% to 77% (Al-Hathloul, 1995;Mubarak, 1995).Economic improvement for government and citizens resulted in jump in urban development characterizing Jeddah and many other major Saudi cities (Mubarak, 1995).Alotaibi (2006), Jeddah represents one of the largest urban areas in Saudi Arabia.Jeddah's urban population has grown rapidly from 1970 to 2002 to an estimated population of 2,560,000 with annual growth rates of 12.43% in 1970 and a rate of 11.05% in 2000.According to Alotaibi (2006), from 1977 to 2002, the rate of ownership has dramatically increased from 19% to 35%.And for the same period, there is a decrease in the rate of renters, from, 77% to 58%, between 1977 and 2002.As a consequence of Jeddah being the main economic city, it has provided more jobs and high income result with improved opportunities for a better quality of life.All reports on the Saudi real estate market reported there was a high demand on real estate units mainly in the residential sector that will require huge number of units, with almost 1 million units by 2012 (Opoku & Abdul-Muhmin, 2010).Understanding the factors influencing consumers behavior to purchase real estate in Saudi market is important.This will provide crucial insight for decision makers and policy developers in managing the housing demand.According to earlier studies (Gibler & Nelson, 2003;Opoku & Abdul-Muhmin, 2010) this kind of studies may provide results that will also be of importance for real estate developers to satisfy the needs and wants of their customers (Gibler & Nelson, 2003;Opoku & Abdul-Muhmin, 2010).

Literature Review
Formal involvement in housing in Saudi Arabia started in 1951.The Saudi government used funding to provide housing for I tscitizens.The government fund called the Real Estate Development Fund (REDF) offers cash loans of up to SR500, 000 (US 133,000), repaid in installments for 25 years to citizens and with zero interest, to construct or buy their own houses.The only two requirements for REDF is that a Saudi citizen must be at least 21 years old and he/she did not receive a previous REDF loan without any restrictions to area.REDF has no conditions for location.According to Mubarak, 1995;Susilawati & Anunu, 2001;Alotaibi, 2006, andthe Centre for Housing Research, (2008), housing development in Jeddah has changed over the last 50 years.A household's dream for property is highly related to housing choices which take into account changes in social and economic factors that affect Jeddah's housing, must be taken into account in any analysis of the housing market in Jeddah.The housing sector needs to identify these key trends and assess their implications for the housing market.A housing neighborhood and its location in relation to services are important in housing markets.Weak regulations in some areas brought problems in some area like streets capacity, infrastructure, utilization of common facilities and social services which resulted in discomfort to many residents of several units.Demand for housing increased from the seventies of the past century until now.Developers need to know some factors which influenced o the decision making process of purchasing a house.In order to develop the most suitable marketing plan.According to Al Hathloul and Edadan (1995) "the economic contribution of the real estate construction sector during the last twenty years has been very significant.The value-added share of the construction sector had increased from 3.2% to 13.4%, registering an annual compound growth rate of 11.2%.During five years, the real estate sector's contribution to the GDP increased from 2.9% to 3.7%.From 2003 until now, most developed countries are having boom in the housing demand despite there being an increase in residential houses investment.
In order to win the market competition, some factors which influence the decision making process of purchasing real estate need to be determined.Therefore, the purpose of this research is to study Saudi consumer intention to purchase real estate.The attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control of the Saudi consumer, and the demographics of housing purchaser's toward the intention to purchase real estate, will be studied in a sample of consumers.

Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)
TRA is a general theory to explain general human behaviour.Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) have developed theoretical grounds of theory of reasoned action (TRA) which states that beliefs influence attitudes, which lead to intentions, and finally to behaviours.TRA was derived from previous research that started out as the theory of attitude.It has, however, led to the study of attitude and behavior.The components of TRA consists three general constructs: behavioral intention, attitude, and subjective norm.TRA suggests that a person's behavioral intention depends on the person's attitude towards the behavior and subjective norm (Ramayah & Suki, 2006).

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as proposed by Ajzen (1991) is an extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) to predict behavior in real-world mode.During the past decades TPB has been used by many researchers, and it showed it was able to predict intentions.A person's behavior intention is influenced by an attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavior control (Ajzen, 1991).According to Ajzen (1991), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used to understand the relationship of intentions to performing a behavior.These intentions are influenced by attitudes towards the behavior, the social pressure to perform this behavior, which is known as subjective norms, and control over the behavior, which is referred to as behavioural control (Ajzen, 1991).TPB was accepted as a theory to explain and forecast human behavior (Numraktrakul et al., 2012).TPB has been used to investigate the factors influencing consumers to purchase their residential units (Phungwong, 2010;Si, 2012).The Theory of planned behavior is a suitable model to study the factors influencing home purchase intentions (Phungwong, 2010;Numraktrakul et al., 2012).

Attitude
Attitude is the person's favor or disfavor toward an action (Tonglet et al., 2004, Al-Nahdi et al., 2008;Al-Nahdi et al., 2009).Attitude is defined as a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).Attitude is also defined as the way individuals respond to and are disposed towards, an object (Yusliza & Ramayah, 2011).
Previous studies (Davis et al., 1989;Cronin & Taylor, 1992;French et al., 2005;Gopi & Ramayah, 2007;Han & Kim, 2010;Ing-Long & Jian-Liang, 2005;Jackson et al., 2003;Kim & Han, 2010;Ramayah et al., 2008) found that there is a strong and steady relationship between attitude and repurchase intention.Customers have the intention to compare the perceived service with the expected service.If customers felt that the service is below their expectation, they would be dissatisfied.However, if customers' feelings were equal to or exceeds their own expectations, they will be satisfied.Accordingly, they intended to purchase from the provider (Kotler & Keller, 2006).The role of feelings of the purchaser influence purchasing process of a custom-made prefabricated house (Koklič & Vida, 2009).A person who has beliefs that result from engaging in a positive behavior will have a positive attitude toward performing the behavior, while a person who has beliefs that result from engaging in a negative behavior will have a negative attitude toward performing the behavior (Ajzen, 1991).Attitudes is one of the determinants that affect individual behavior (Gibler & Nelson, 1998).Attitude influences consumer intention to purchase durables (Chung & Pysachik, 2000;Summers et al., 2001) Attitude influences consumer intention to purchase a house (Phungwong, 2010;Numraktrakul et al., 2012).

Subjective Norm
Subjective Norm results from how the person perceives the pressures placed on him/her to perform or not to perform the behavior (Ajzen, 1991;Tonglet et al., 2004;Han & Kim, 2010;Kim & Han, 2010).Consumers' perception of social pressures put on him by others to purchase a product (Phungwong, 2010).Friends, parents, political parties, and/or agent might be involved in the purchasing decision (Kalafatis et al., 1999).The attitude of others influences the purchase intention and purchase decision.Attitude of others means to which limit the attitude of others affect the customer's purchase decision and of choosing a particular product among different products.When others are close to a customer and have high negativism toward the product, customers will be more likely to adjust his purchase intention.And a customer's purchase intention will increase if others have others preferences to the same product (Ajzan & Fishbein 1980;Kotler & Keller, 2006;Rivis & Sheeran, 2003).Previous studies showed different results regarding the subjective norm as a predictor of intention.There are some studies that showed a significant relationship between subjective norm and intention (Taylor & Todd, 1995;Venkatesh & Davis, 2000;Ramayah et al., 2003Ramayah et al., , 2004;;Chan & Lu, 2004;Baker et al., 2007;Teo & Lee, 2010).Other some studies, again, showed there is no significant relationship between subjective norm and intention (Davis et al., 1989;Mathieson, 1991;Chau & Hu, 2001;Lewis et al., 2003).Latest studies found that subjective was a predictor of intention at different areas (Alam & Sayuti, 2011;Gupta & Ogden, 2009;Han & Kim, 2010;Iakovleva et al., 2011;Kim & Han, 2010;Wu et al., 2011).Koklič and Vida (2009) External factors of the purchaser also influence the purchasing process of a custom-made prefabricated house.External factors like reference groups and family purchaser influence purchasing process of a custom-made prefabricated house (Koklič & Vida, 2009).Susilawati et al. (2001) found friends colleagues and wives have influenced the decision making of purchasing a house by 45%.Social and cultural factors play a significant role in the relative importance of housing preferences which are determined by religion, kinship, and social relations (Jabareen, 2005).Consumers are sometimes influenced by friends' information involved with the actual home decision (Kichen & Roche, 1990).Social factors play significant roles in choosing a house to purchase (Al-Momani, 2000).Subjective norms influence a consumer intention to purchase a house (Phungwong, 2010;Numraktrakul et al., 2012).

Intention
Intention is an indication of a person's willingness to perform the behavior, and it is an immediate antecedent of behavior.Intention is the dependent variable which is predicted by an independent variable namely attitude, Subjective Norm and Perceived Behavioral Control.Intention varies from time to time and as the time interval increases, the lower is the correlation between intention and action (Ajzen, 1991;Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980;Han & Kim, 2010).Davis et al. (1989) and Taylor and Todd (1995) found in their studies that intention is strong predictor of behavior.Therefore, the intention to purchase is an antecedent of a purchase decision (Phungwong, 2010).Figure 1 shows the relationship between independent and dependent variable which intention.

Demographics
Factor such as the demographics of a person can affect the intentions of a purchaser (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).Speare et al. (1975) for example, states that demographic factors are driving housing preferences.Blackwell et. al. (1995) has identified internal and external factors influence purchasing behavior.While Gibler and Nelson (1998) discovered that, the demographic characteristics of the consumer also affect individuals' behavior.Furthermore, according to Nelson and Rabianski (1988), purchasing family housing is a function of psychographic and demographic variables.Demographic factors influence the behavior of purchasing a house.Thus, demographic characteristics such as Citizenship is a factor that influence the purchase-intention of a customer (Dawson et al., 1990;Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990;Gattiker et al., 2000;Haddad et al., 2011).
Previous research shows that the demographic effect varies from study to study.Some studies that indicate that there is a significant impact of demographics on the behavior can be found in research by (Venkatesh et al., 2000;Morris et al., 2005), and other studies that found that there is no significant impact of demographics on the behavior are recorded in (Kotrlik et al., 2000;Kanbe, 2009).In France, for example, it was found that demographics influence French real estate purchasers (Violand & Simon, 2007).Also, Al-Jurasiy (2008) found that demographics has effect on Saudi consumer purchase behavior.Figure 1 shows the moderating effect of demographics on the relationship between independent and dependent variable which intention.
These diverse findings concerning the role of demographics suggest an additional need for exploratory research in explaining the roles of citizenship related to intentions to purchase housing.

Theoretical framework:
Figure 1.Effects of demographic (Citizenship) on the relationship between independent and dependent variable

Population and Data Collection
Population for this study people living in Jeddah and who are above 18 years old.The sample was selected randomly.Where, Data collected by a questionnaire adapted from various researches.The questionnaire was distributed directly to respondents.

Goodness of Measures
Factor analysis and reliability were used to test the goodness of measures.Factor analysis is a test of how well an instrument measures the concept whereas reliability is a test of how consistently a measuring instrument measures the concept (Sekaran & Bougie, 2010).

Data Collection
The questionnaire was distributed directly to respondents.

Data Analysis Method
In this study, the statistical tool SPSS version 21.0 (Statistical Package for Social Science) was applied to analyze the data profile and also the hypotheses testing.The following analysis was used: Descriptive Analysis was used to analyze the demographic information of respondents.As well as Goodness of Measure Analysis factor analysis and reliability analysis were conducted (Hair et al., 1998;Sekaran, 2003).This was to ensure that the data used to test the hypotheses are both valid and reliable.Factor Analysis was conducted based on Hair et al. (1998).The Varimax rotation method was also used.Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy, Bartlett's test of sphericity, and anti-image correlation were used as well to verify the assumptions undertaken by the factor analysis.Cronbanch alpha was used to analyze the reliability of the instruments.Regression Analysis was used for hypothesis testing, it was used to investigate the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, and also the effect of moderating variables towards this relationship.

Response Rate
A total of 450 sets of questionnaires were distributed to respondents in Jeddah.Out of the total of questionnaires distributed, 380 sets of questionnaires were returned which represent 84%.Only 322 sets of the questionnaires were usable which represents a rate of 71.5%.Table 1 shows the responses to the distributed questionnaires.

Profile of Respondents
The profile of respondent shows and as depicted in table 2 below, that respondents were aged between 18 to 25 representing 29.2 percent, and between 26-33 representing 24.8 percent, age between 34-40 percent represents 24.8 percent.Respondents aged above 40 percent represent 24 percent of the total respondents.Respondents between 34-40 percent is aged between 26-33 years.79.2 Percent of respondents are males, where as, 20.8 percent are females, around 64.6 percent of the respondents are married, and 35.4 percent are single.17.4 Percent have only two family members, 34.5 percent have between 3-4 family members, 31.7 percent have 5-6 family members, and more than 6 family members represents 16.5 percent of respondents.66.8 Percent of the respondents are Saudis, and 33.2 are Non-Saudis.Respondents educated to primary level represent 2.5 percent, where as 23.3 percent are secondary level, 4.3 percent are diploma level, 55.6 percent are Bachelor degree holders, whereas , 14 percent are post graduates, Professional qualification holders represent only 0.3 percent of the respondents.Of the study, 9 percent of the respondents are unemployed or retired, 23 percent own a business, 28 percent work in government, 32 percent work in the private sector, and others 8.1 percent work in different jobs.Respondents with income below SR 10,000 represent 47,5 percent of the study; 34,2 percent of the respondents income is between 10,001 to 20,000, 14 of the respondents income between 20,000 to 50,000, and 4.3 percent of the respondents income is above SR50,001.

Factor Analysis
Factor analysis was used to ensure that the number of items can be reduced to the number of concepts that were initially hypothesized (Hair et al., 1998).Minimum acceptable value for KMO is 0.50 with Bartlett's test of sphericity to be significant.Eigenvalue value should be 1 or greater.The cut off point for significant factor loading should be at least 0.50 on one factor.
Factor analysis was done on items of independent variables (Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioral Control).This examination revealed a combined total variance explanation of 64.33%.The KMO measures of sampling adequacy stand at 0.814.Table 3 summarizes factor loadings and cross factor loadings for independent variables that were extracted from the rotated component matrix.There we have attitude, Subjective norms and Perceived behavior control.Factor analysis was done on items of the dependent variable (Intention).Five questions were introduced to measure the dependent variable.This examination revealed a combined total variance explanation of 64%.The KMO measures of sampling adequacy stand at .844.Table 4 summarizes the factor loadings and cross factor loading which is shown at rotated component matrix.

Reliability Analysis
Reliability Analysis was conducted to ensure the consistency or stability of the items (Sekeran, 2003).The Cronbachs alpha test was used to analyze the reliability of the instrument.In this section all variables namely attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavior controls will be included in the reliability analysis.Table 5 shows the values of Cronbach's alpha for all the variables.

Test of Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1, 2, 3, and 4 predicted that the independent variables which include attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control are positively related to the dependent variable which is intention.Citizenship moderates the relationship between independents toward dependents.The Multiple regression analysis technique was used to test this relationship in this model.Two regression analyses were performed to determine the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable and the effect of the moderator.Testing the interaction can show the moderator effect (Cohen & Cohen, 1983).Moderation is like a variable that strengthens or weakens the relationship between the dependent and independent variables (Baron & Kenny, 1986).Statistically moderation is an interaction between the independent variable and moderator, on the relationship towards dependent variable (Lee et al., 2008).
Firstly, multiple regression was conducted.It showed the following results R square = 31.8%,this means that about 31.8% of the variation in the dependent variable can be explained by the independent variables jointly.F value =49.37, and p = 000 <.01 which is very significant, implying the model is adequate.The Durbin-Watson Test D =1.703.More details can be found in table 7.  H1 the more positive is attitude the greater is the consumer intention to purchase real estate.
Table 7 shows the results between attitude and intention to purchase real estate.Based on the results, attitude was significant ***p<.00 with Standardized Coefficients Beta =0.278 and have positive effect on Intention.Thus, H1 supported.
H2 the more positive is subjective norm the greater is the consumer intention to purchase real estate.
Table 7 shows the results of the degree of the effect of subjective norm toward intention to purchase real estate.
Based on the results, subjective norm was significant p<.00 with Standardized Coefficients Beta = 0.388 and have positive effect on intention to purchase real estate.Thus, H2 supported.
H3 the more positive is perceived behavioral control the greater is the consumer intention to purchase real estate.
Table 7 shows the results between perceived behavioral control and intention to purchase real estate.Based on the results, perceived behavioral control was not significant p>.05 with Standardized Coefficients Beta = 0.019 and have no effect on Intention to purchase real estate.Thus, H3 not supported.
H4 Citizenship moderates independent variables (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) towards intention to purchase real estate.
Table 8 shows the results show the effect of Citizenship towards intention to purchase real estate.Based on the results, Citizenship was not significant p>.05 and have no effect on Intention to purchase real estate.Thus, H4 not supported.

Conclusion
The study has illustrated the ability of the TPB to explain the intention to purchase real estate, and whether Demographics namely Citizenship could also, moderate the relationship to purchase real estate.It was shown that the intention to purchase real estate was influenced by attitude and subjective norm while perceived behavioral control was not, with the subjective norm component being more influential.Citizenship was not a moderator on the relationship between independent and dependents.
This study provided what influence the behavior.The study has shown that attitude subjective norm are accepted for explaining behavior purchase of real estate in Saudi Arabia.In conclusion, it is assumed that the outcomes of this study have contributed some valuable information for researchers, customers, marketers and real estate owners.It is expected that the result of the survey will provide information on the intention to purchase real estate and which variables affect this intention.Therefore, as a result, this study can serve as a future reference on the study of real estate.Which will help consumer to know what influence them to make this behavior.Also, will help governments to set procedures and regulations for current and future plans.inaddition this study will help real estate instructors to understand what influence consumers toward real estate and consider it at their marketing planning.Admittedly, there are some limitations which must be given due attention.

Limitations
Several limitations have been identified in this study.The results of this study couldn't provide a general picture of all customers in Saudi Arabia.Because this research was only conducted in Jeddah.Thus, the result obtained

Table 1 .
Distributions of questionnaires

Table 2 .
Profile of respondents

Table 3 .
Factor loadings for independent variables

Table 4 .
Factor loading for dependent variable intention to purchase real estate

Table 7 .
Multiple regression results between independent variables attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control with dependent variable intention dependent variable Secondly, Hierarchal regression was conducted.It shows the following results R square = 32.2% this means that about 32.2% of the variation and.F = 000 <.01 which is very significant, implying the model is adequate.More details can be found in table 8.

Table 8 .
The effect of citizenship as a moderator