Factors and tendencies of housing abandonment: An analysis of a survey of vacant houses in Kawaguchi City, Saitama

Abstract

Abstract The issue of vacant houses is receiving increased attention in the field of urban policy and planning in Japan. We aim to describe the factors of vacant houses that lead to abandonment from the perspectives of the characteristics of the built environment and property owners using a logistic regression model to analyze the relationship between housing abandonment and these characteristics. There were five major findings. First, building age and attachment to a road less than four meters wide increase the probability of housing abandonment, although urbanization before 1960 lowers the probability. Second, an exclusively residential zone is more likely to be associated with floor area, which makes abandonment more likely and building age in this zone has a positive relationship particularly to an overgrowth of trees. Third, the further away the property owner's own residence is from the vacant house, the greater the likelihood that it will be abandoned. Fourth, vacancies owing to the demise of the previous occupants significantly raise the likelihood of housing abandonment. Fifth, the probability of housing abandonment is extremely high when the owner of the vacant house is unknown.

Keywords

• housing abandonment
• housing survey
• logistic regression
• property owner characteristics
• vacant house