A bounded rationality framework for property investment behaviour Available to Purchase

This paper attempts to explain the motivations of residential rental property investors in New Zealand in terms of the behavioural assumption of bounded rationality. Commencing with a rejection of the more standard neo‐classical economics view of rationality as an explanation of investment behaviour, the paper seeks to both examine the extent to which bounded rationality applies to the investment behaviour encountered and to elaborate on that behaviour. The discussion is underpinned by the findings of a postal survey of a large nationwide sample of private residential rental property owners, and is directly based on a study of a smaller sample of investors using in‐depth interview techniques. Qualitative analysis overlays the quantitative data, to enable better exploration of the constraints within which individual investors operate.