Study on Demographic Background of Potential Buyers: With Reference to Luxury Condominium Apartments in Colombo

AbstractPurchasing a home is considered as the largest investment done in one's life and would be a long-time commitment. In order to understand the house purchase decision; it is important to identify house buyers’ demographic factors such as age, household composition, income etc. Such factors will initially influence buyers’ decision to buy a house. By understanding the demographic background of buyers’ real demand in the market for luxury condominiums could be identified by the developers. As well as luxury condominium is a type of product which is affordable to a very limited number of buyers as the price levels of the product is very high. So, real estate marketers and sales personals find it very difficult to find the prospective buyers for these apartments as there are no evidence about the demographic background of the people who demand these luxury condominiums. But if this information is available for them they would have a clear idea about the target group of the buyers so that they can do their particular marketing and promotional campaigns specially targeting them which will result in increased number of sales. Hence, the objective of this study is to identify the demographic background of potential buyers of luxury condominium apartments in Colombo. The population of the study is potential buyers who demand luxury condominium apartments in Colombo. The sampling method was judgmental sampling and the sample was considered as potential buyers who visited Astoria condominium apartment. Data was collected using questionnaire survey method and data analysis was done using SPSS software.House buying decision is a collective family decision even though the first phase of information collection and final phase of decision process dealing with payments and company is mostly done by males. It shows that mostly the purchase decision is a collective decision done with their family members. Major age categories of buyers are from30-50 years which confirms that this is the age that potential buyers make their purchase decision. Most of the respondents are Sri Lankans while there is a mix of other nationalities, and a higher portion of Sri Lankan potential buyers are living abroad. Majority of buyers’ income lays in between (LKR) 1-5 million. Further, the majority of the respondents are well educated and are business owners while average household size of these respondents was 4 members.Keywords: Demography, Potential buyers, Luxury Condominiu