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МОНГОЛЫН ХҮН АМЫН СЭТГҮҮЛ Дугаар (367) 20, 2011
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Table 1:
Number of Apartments and Prices in
Ulaanbaatar
Year
Number of Apartments
Commissioned
Year
2000
978
$300
2001
816
$340
2002
1285
$309
2003
2041
$348
2004
2955
$350
2005
2935
$461
2006
5863
$502
2007
4832
$580
2008
4216
$650
2009
4562
$850
Source:
National Statistics Committee Information,
2000-2009.
Construction Statistics for New Apartments,
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The study herein attempts to evaluate
consumer aspirations regarding housing for
consumers in Ulaanbaatar and to assess the
sources of information used in the process of
searching for a new home. The next section
addresses the method used for collecting data,
including the sampling procedure and the
operationalization of variables.
METHOD
Sampling and Procedure
The data was collected in the capital
city, Ulaanbaatar, using a street-intercept
procedure.
Fifty
trained
investigators
were hired to collect data from the State
Department Store, the Central Post Office, the
South Grocery Market, the Sunday Market
Department Store and the Bayunzurch Market.
A total of 500 data collection instruments,
written in Mongolian, were administered, and
450 were deemed as usable questionnaires.
A total of 500 individuals were approached
and 99.8 per cent agreed to complete the
questionnaire; such a high response rate is
explained by the fact that the respondents were
keen for their opinions regarding housing to be
widely known and disseminated: the present
study was presented as an international survey
and the respondents were informed that the
aggregate responses in the study would be
made known internationally, as well as locally.
Research Instrument/Operationalization of
Variables
The research instrument comprised
of a survey questionnaire. The specific
questions asked to collect the data on different
operational variables and performance
measures are described below. Respondents
were first asked if they lived in a single-family
house, an apartment, a
ger
with a yard, or a
ger
in someone else’s yard. They were also asked
the number of rooms in their dwelling and
whether their home was in Ulaanbaatar City.
Respondents had to indicate if they planned
on buying a new home in the following three
to five years. If so, they were asked about the
number of rooms of the intended apartment
and the price they were willing to pay using
five categories, namely, $250-$500 per square
meter, $501-$700 per square meter, $701-
$900 per square meter, $901-$1,100 per square
meter, or $1,200$-$1,500$ per square meter.
They were asked what sources of information
they would likely consult for the apartment –
friends, television advertisements, newspaper
advertisements, street posters, or the services
of a real estate firm. They were then asked
to indicate the extent to which the following
factors would influence their decision to
buy an apartment using a 5-point semantic
differential scale; the factors are: price,
location, neighborhood, bank loan interest,
reputation of the building company, apartment
quality, construction and design of the
apartment, structure and plan of the rooms,
demand for apartments, and the supply of
apartments. Respondents were also asked to
indicate their age category, their gender, the
number of family members, whether they lived
in Ulaanbaatar, in a town in the provinces, or
in the countryside. Finally, respondents had
to indicate whether they worked for the state
government, for a nonprofit organization, for
a private employer, whether they owned their
own business, if they were unemployed, or
retired, or if they were students.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The
respondents
were
evenly
distributed with regard to age, with 137
(30.4%) under the age of 25, 165 (36.7%)
between 26 and 35, 119 (26.4%) between 36
and 50, and 29 (6.4%) over the age of 51. In