RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methods using are mainly quantitative methodology as the main research method, while qualitative analysis is the supplementary research method. First method will be used is the online self-completion questionnaire (SCQ) to investigate the criteria or factors that would attribute to property purchase for Southeast Asian owners, among the questionnaires, it will provide different weights towards the ranking factor as well. Based on the information and response from the SCQ, these data can be transformed by ways of graphs and charts, then using the software of IBM SPSS and linear regression, the correlation could be found to identify the relationship between the two variables to further determine the quantitative impact of cultural factors on the purchase of the house. The second method will be used is focus group and semi-structured interview as supplementary methods. In addition, secondary data will be getting as well as supporting evidence.
RESEARCH METHODS AND DATA SOURCES
Self-completion questionnaires-SCQ
The research will first use online self-completion questionnaire (SCQ) to investigate the property purchase factors .The main method for collecting data would be using close ended questions for SCQ and work with southeast Asian real estate agencies, such as Colliers, JLL, and ask them to help to send out the questionnaires to their database purchaser clients. The questionnaire will be carried out within 5 countries and each country would have 200 copies. Among all the factors which include cultural factors, it will ask the respondents to select those factors attributing for property purchase decision in Australia and then among all the factors selected, ranking those factors from 1-5 from least important, not very important, important, quite important to most important for those factors. It will be conducted by way of email questionnaire and will involve minimal costs. The expected time frame is about one to three months as sometimes it will take longer time for respondents to respond. The strength of this method is quick, with minimal costs involved and can provide greater anonymity. However, limitations would be the questions will be more abstractive and respondents might have different views on culture which may affect result analysis. After receiving the information from the questionnaire, the data will be transformed into Excel and graphs. Although the SCQ may be a not very deep data collection method but the information can reveal the ranking weights towards cultural factors. Then the variables can be displayed on a XY charts and then using the IBM SPSS software and Excel Linear Regression tool to identify the quantitative relationship between two variables. The method in the end can be summarized as a formula and bring up the correlation figure. Based on the figure and the sign for correlation, it can tell the relationship. If the correlation is positive, which means an increasing relationship for the variables, and vice versa. Besides, if the absolute figure is close towards one, which means a stronger relationship between the cultural factors and the property purchase decision.
Focus group and semi-structured interviews
Focus group is expected to last for one week and will involve certain costs to pay for participants. The data looking for is consensus that is agreed by all participants, namely, textual data. It will be carried out via open-ended question, bring up cultural factor one by one and seek for where does it come from, then observe and record the information getting from focus group. It will invite sociologist, economist, historian, developer, buyer to attend the focus group and these participants are with expertise. The analysing tool would be transcription and analysis of the arguments. The strength is that it can be used as a backup method to supplement literature review, but the shortcoming is that the result can be affected by other respondents’ review significantly. It is expected that the potential outcome will be the consensus that agreed in the focus group should be in line with relevant journal articles.
Semi-structured interview is another supplementary method and it will take about 15 days, it will need to pay to the participants with an hourly rate of $20 and it is expected to invite 30 potential buyers by way of interviewing the owners from Southeast Asian backgrounds with open and closed questions. Each session will run about 20 minutes for one person. The information received will be mainly the transcription from the interviewees. For open ended question answers, the data can be analysed to check if it will in line with relevant journal articles or not. For close ended questions, the data can be transformed into graphs which are easier to comprehend. The strength is to increase the chance of successful data collection and improve the accuracy of data. However, the limitations would be time wasting and difficult to replicate. Potential outcome will be to verify and support the data gathered from quantitative method and providing qualitative evidence.
Secondary data
This paper will also be looking at some secondary data as supporting information, it is expected to look at the foreign investments review board annual report 2017-2018 financial year. It will mainly focus on the amount of dollar invested in real estate industry and the country sources. According to the annual report 2017-2018, the leasing two countries are USA and China for foreign investments and in real-estate industry, China invested $12,667.7 million in this past financial year, which is the biggest percentage in this sector. It on the other side would support the main question in this topic. The data could only be a supporting data, although they are factual numbers, they still have limitations to provide evidence directly.
CONSLUSION
Based on the literature findings at this stage and the expected research design methods, it is expected that the findings will show a positive strong correlation between cultural background and property purchase decisions. Consequently, this hypothesis will be tested in the Australian property market for people from Southeast Asian backgrounds and it is important to understand its implications.
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* Presentation and Written Communication 20%
