A considerable housing boom has been a key feature of persistently large saving-investment imbalances in New Zealand over the past decade. Wealth is concentrated to a greater extent in property compared to most other OECD countries, leaving households and the banking system heavily exposed to a...

House prices have increased significantly in Canada over the past decade, driving household debt and residential construction activity to historical highs. Although macro-prudential tightening has slowed the pace of household borrowing in the last few years, house prices have continued to trend...

Norway’s dual income tax system achieves high levels of revenue collection and income redistribution, without overly undermining economic performance and while paying attention to environmental externalities. It treats capital and labour income in different ways: capital income is taxed at a...

In this paper we describe the main features of the French social housing system as viewed from abroad, and place it within the context of systems in other major developed countries, particularly in Europe. At 17% of the total stock the social sector in France is of similar scale to many other...

Housing plays a key role in the economy, because of its weight in household expenditures and assets, its importance for social well-being, and its impact on educational outcomes and employment as well as on the business cycle. Over the past half century, the bulk of the population has benefited...

Israeli house prices have risen by over 50% over the past three years. In part this reflects the fact that for several years housing construction had not kept pace with increases in the number of households. In response to these developments, hitherto sluggish planning-approval processes are...

A well-functioning housing market is essential for economic prosperity and well-being. A combination of favourable economic and financial conditions and tight housing supply led to sharp increases in real house prices between the mid-1990s and end 2007, which spurred household consumption. While...

Les politiques du logement en France visent à satisfaire plusieurs objectifs. Il s’agit en premier lieu d’assurer à chacun un logement qui corresponde à ses besoins et à ses capacités financières. Le logement social, les aides au logement, les dispositifs d’aide à l’investissement...

Chile has made good progress in improving housing conditions, but still around 10% of the population lives in either overcrowded houses, or of inadequate quality and/or with poor access to basic services. Improving further housing conditions of the poor is important for curbing poverty and...

This paper compares a number of housing policies such as housing taxation, land use and rental regulations and social housing policies for OECD countries relying on new data. Based on a range of econometric analyses, it also investigates whether these housing-related policies achieve their...