Attitudes toward Home Ownership among First-jobber Tenants in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region

Abstract

First-jobber is a group of people who are in the early stages of their careers. They are between the ages of 21 and 30 and likely to be new graduates. At present, most of them belong to Generation Z, which has different attitudes from previous generations. Almost all of them want to own their own home but this group’s ability to own housing has decreased. Therefore, this research aims to study their economic and social characteristics, rental’s characteristics, reasons for current rental and attitudes towards future home ownership by asking 399 people of first-jobber who rent in Bangkok metropolitan region.

The study found that most of the sample group were single with a bachelor's degree. They mostly were full-time employees of private companies and did not have a second career, with personal incomes around 10,000 - 25,000 baht and household income over 100,000 baht. Playing on social media was reported as their favorite hobby. They usually rent an apartment room located in metropolitan provinces. with 21-25 square meters and 5,001-7,000 baht rent. Their reason for rental is that the location is near their working area or easy to travel to work. The sample group lives in a rented place every day and lives alone. They commute to work by motorcycle and take 15-30 minutes to travel. They use the accommodation area for cooking and exercising and some of them are used for raising pets. Satisfaction of the rental is at the moderate to moderate near high level. The most satisfactory factor is the location and they usually found no problems with renting. In the next 5 years, they want to buy (67.9%), want to rent (30.8%) and want other type (1.3%). They want to buy a single house or twin house priced at 1-2 million baht to increase the stability in life and want to rent a condominium priced 4,001-7,000 baht per month because they can move easily. Most are planning at the financial planning stage and have no plans to return to their hometowns right now.

The results of the study indicate that a majority of those in the first-jobber renters want to buy a house in the next 5 years, have the ability to pay in no more than 2 million baht and consider the location near their working area or easy to travel to work. Therefore, it is suggested that the National Housing Authority (NHA) and entrepreneurs consider accelerating the increase in the number of houses for rent and rent-to-own homes and also to improve the quality of houses for rent for people in their first 5 years of working then increase the quantity of housing projects which priced not more than 2 million baht, emphasize the design of a good atmosphere within the residence with a facility as necessary and focus on the locations that can travel easily. Also, they can establish a collaboration with financial institutions to promote knowledge on financial planning for housing to first-jobber 5 years before they buy a house.