Households and individuals make choices over housing infrequently and with
little experience. And yet these are among the most important personal
finance decisions that are made in a lifetime. The stakes could hardly be
higher. Thus it is an important area of consumer decision making, but one
where non-rational behavioural phenomena are likely to occur. My work
investigates the nature of behavioural biases in housing choices, with a
particular focus on the role of estate agents as choice architects. These
are economic agents who can manipulate preference construction and so
influence choice. The research currently considers behavioural phenomena
under three headings: i) biases arising from choice set manipulation; ii)
biases due to option viewing order; and iii) biases in value judgements. It
is hoped the use of these behavioural insights will significantly
contribute to our understanding of housing choice and so of the
micro-economic dynamics of housing markets.

Current paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1754419