Status with conspicuous goods: the role of modern housing

People care about their standing in society and what others think about them. One of the foremost reasons for this is the status consideration. Today, most people invest in luxury housing, which are noticeable to the public for the purpose of demonstrating their status. Yet, nearly all applied work in consumer demand assumes the absence of conspicuous consumption. In the light of this, the purpose of this study was to explore various aspects related to the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption and to examine how people use their houses to exhibit their status to the public. This paper reports the outcomes of an exploratory baseline study conducted on 120 modern house owners (MHOs) within the Kurunegala Municipal Council Limits, to examine the use of modern houses to demonstrate the status of their owners. A series of discussions with MHOs, personal interviews with renowned architects and extensive site visits were undertaken to gather first-hand information on the significance of housing in projecting social status. The data gathered were analysed using SPSS (Version 17), along with other exploratory data analysis methods. The results highlighted that the behaviour of MHOs was highly influenced by their social status. Not surprisingly, the findings confirmed that a consumer would perceive both the utilitarian function (β=0.654, p<0.001) and the expressive or status function (β=0.831, p<0.001) of modern housing. The results also produced evidence to suggest that females were more likely than males to purchase or construct status-congruent houses and that higher investment on such houses were generally associated with higher incomes.