National housing statistics and construction market research: a view on data integration

Abstract

The Group of Studies on Construction Management of the Department of Industrial Engineering (GECON) of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, have been conducting a series of marketing surveys dealing with the characteristics and desires of potential apartment building buyers in several major Brazilian Cities. Demographic data like age, marital status, size of the househol and source of family income are presented, together with information about the number of bedrooms, number of garages, and the relationship between average monthly income and value of the intended new home. The paper argues that a great proportion of this sort of information is already available through national housing statistics , making not necessary to include such sort of questions in the marketing questionaries. On the other hand, national statistics are also useful to create macroeconomic models that might predict demand and supply of new homes in the near future. The paper concludes by asserting the need to carefully integrate all sort of marketing information in the housing market, in order to increase the capability of predicting the total volume of construction and their share according to families income and status.