Residential location choice of knowledge-workers: The role of amenities, workplace and lifestyle

• Empirical discrete-choice model of knowledge-workers’ residential location.
• The model combines classical location factors with new lifestyle-oriented theses.
• Primary factors are the socio-economic level, housing price and travel time.
• Cultural land-use and culture-oriented lifestyle have a substantial secondary role.

This study investigates the residential location choice of knowledge-workers at the intra-metropolitan level by applying discrete choice models. The models represent housing choices of 833 knowledge-workers in high-technology and financial services and analyze the relative importance of lifestyle and cultural amenities in addition to classic location factors. Hence, the model bridges the gap between the recent lifestyle-oriented and the classical utility-oriented conceptualizations of the residential choice of knowledge-workers. The most important factors are municipal socioeconomic level, housing affordability and commuting time, while substantial secondary factors are cultural and educational land-use and culture-oriented lifestyle.