Housing Prices, Bank Lending, and Monetary Policy

In order to gain more insight into the relationship between housing prices and mortgage lending, we estimate models for both the Dutch housing and the mortgage market. The empirical analysis presented in this paper offers support for the hypothesis that in the Netherlands housing prices and mortgage lending are interdependent. According to our model, housing prices were influenced by changes in bank lending criteria during the estimation period, even when we control for variables such as disposable household income, mortgage interest rate, demographic developments and the housing stock. Mortgage lending was found to be dependent on housing prices as well as disposable income. Our analysis further suggests that in the short run housing prices can deviate substantially from their long-run equilibrium value.