Abstract

Tanzanians’ house ownership cultural practice is dominated by people resorting to buildhouses on their own in incremental basis from their personal savings and by a small contractor“mafundi”. However, about a decade ago real estate developers have introduced modernized residents i.e.condominium and gated communities that are offered for sale through presale arrangement. Thiscontravenes the popular self-built house traditional yet there has been a significant market response.However, recently developers are struggling to achieve sale as prospective buyers hesitate to take part. Residential developers ought to grasp a better understanding of the interests, perceptions and preferencesof their prospective in order to outshine. This study investigates the key criteria that take precedencyamong house buyers as they make house purchase decision as it is a platform to explain the mostprobable reason for slow sales. To triumph this aim the study adopts a quantitative research approachadministered to 150 homeowners and prospective buyers, accompanied with interviews to developers aswell as lending institutions. Findings reveals that, income level, household size, quality of the house, design of the house, locationfrom the social amenities, mortgage interest rate, investment purposes, living condition and governmentparticipation to be the most significant factors influencing Tanzanian house buying decision. Thusdeveloper ought to put extreme attention in situation analysis on the significant attributes highlighted herein so as to be able to capture the market