Agent-Based Modelling of Residential Mobility, Housing Choice and Regeneration

The housing market is a dynamic system of intricately woven interdependent processes. It is affected by the volatility in the fi nancial markets and the conditions of this market affect discriminatory individual level behaviour. Like other applications, agent-based models (ABMs) can be used to simulate activity in this market with a view to gaining a better understanding of how the market works as well as to realise causal relationships that occur. The terms residential mobility and housing choice are standard within housing market research and can be found across the housing studies literature (Kim et al. 2005 ; Tu and Goldfi nch 1996 ) . These terms encapsulate the movement questions which lead households to decide whether to move and subsequently choose a new home. One of the most infl uential factors which affect these processes is the family life cycle, in collaboration with income (Dieleman 2001 ) . Changes in the family life cycle affect location choice whilst overall government policy affects demand and supply of the housing stock. The linkages between these processes are important. We can use ABMs to answer this question.