Factors Influencing Purchase Decisions for Prefabricated Modular Houses in Asia, Hungary, and Ghana: A Systematic Literature Review

Consumer willingness to purchase prefabricated modular houses has not kept pace with the industry’s progress, while cross-regional research on its determinants remains fragmented. This shortfall reflects not only consumer perceptions but also construction industry and technical challenges, constraining off-site production capacity and the technical solutions urban development needs to meet housing demand at scale. A PRISMA 2020 systematic review of Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Springer Nature retained seven studies (2003–2026; Asia, Hungary, Ghana), synthesized through Perceived Value Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Five factors shape purchase decisions—cost, product quality, technological innovation, sustainability performance, and esthetic appeal—with cost and product quality being universal across regions, technological innovation only in Hungary and Asia, sustainability performance in Ghana and China, and aesthetic appeal only in India, reflecting shared priorities and region-specific regulatory, climatic, and cultural contexts. The review proposes two constructs: a three-level hierarchy of basic, supporting, and deciding factors, and a perception–performance gap linking technical advantages to willingness to pay. Practically, these findings give manufacturers, developers, and policymakers a pathway: treating cost and quality as non-negotiable baselines, then positioning technological innovation and sustainability performance as integrated, regionally calibrated value rather than standalone novelties, narrowing the gap between construction capacity and market uptake.