This paper analyzes the housing markets and housing policies in Hong Kong, China and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Both markets face housing affordability problems due to limited land supply, for which the solutions vary considerably. Hong Kong, China has adopted a railway and property...

Housing policies in Japan after World War II were focused on the quantitative supply of houses with a wide range of targeted groups and public rental houses. The Japan Housing Corporation (now the Urban Renaissance Agency) and the Government Housing Loan Corporation (now the Japan Housing...

This paper analyzes the impact of the sale of rental housing in Amsterdam on the local housing market. This increases the supply of owner-occupied housing, but can also contribute to gentrification associated with the inflow of different household groups. Earlier literature focused on the former...

Increasing supply is frequently proposed as a solution to rising housing costs. However, there is little evidence on how new market-rate construction-which is typically expensive-affects the market for lower quality housing in the short run. I begin by using address history data to identify...

House prices have increased faster than average income in many countries over the last decade, raising concerns on the affordability of housing. We study the impact of transaction taxes on the real estate market and the effectiveness of tax subsidies to make housing more affordable. We show how...

Although the topic of housing – housing prices, housing policy, housing finance – has largely fallen by the wayside as a “hot” news item, these issues remain largely unresolved. This paper reviews the recent history of housing finance and housing policy, examines the realistic policy...

Housing prices have been growing strongly in Luxembourg, stoked by population growth, a high rate of household formation and limited use of land available for construction. Increases in price-to-income ratio mainly reflect high valuations of residential real estate, which rise faster than...

In recent years the housing market in Malta has been characterised by significant demand and supply developments reflecting strong economic and population growth. While the determinants of house prices in Malta have long been studied and documented, much less is known about private sector rents,...

We review the main studies on house price synchronization and conduct an empirical analysis using OECD house price indices. We provide a discussion of the contributing factors of synchronization, with a focus on the demand and supply dimensions. Synchronization across both countries and cities...

According to the RF Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr), the land area in the ownership of RF individuals continues to decrease. As of 1 January 2012, it amounted to 119.6 million hectares (m ha) (7% of the total land surface) vs. 121.4 m ha (7.1%) in...