scholarly journals The 2007 financial crisis and the UK residential housing market: Did the relationship between interest rates and house prices change?

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 518-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin-Bun Tse ◽  
Timothy Rodgers ◽  
Jacek Niklewski
2003 ◽  
Vol 186 ◽  
pp. 53-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Barrell ◽  
Amanda Choy ◽  
Rebecca Riley

Consumption behaviour in the UK is frequently seen as different from that in other countries. The relationship between the housing market and consumption is discussed at length in HM Treasury (2003). The housing market, which has been particularly cyclically volatile in the past 30 years, has contributed to cycles in consumption through its impact on housing wealth. Increased house prices increase the value of assets held, and impact on consumption, making the economy more cyclical. There is a clear relationship between the level of real financial plus housing net wealth as a proportion of income and the savings ratio (excluding adjustment for changes in net equity of households in pension funds), as can be seen from chart 1, where we plot the stock of total net assets over the flow of income to indicate just how much ‘cover’ the personal sector has on its current commitments. When wealth rises, for instance because real asset prices have risen, then individuals find themselves with more assets than they need and increase their consumption in order to return their assets to their equilibrium ratio to income. Clearly this process is not instantaneous, but cycles in wealth driven by house prices could have contributed to the cyclical nature of overall demand in the UK in the past 30 years.


2011 ◽  
Vol 216 ◽  
pp. F62-F68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Barrell ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Rachel Whitworth

The housing market plays a fundamental role in the economy, and its functioning affects both consumer welfare and economic stability, as the recent crisis has made clear. Research by Barrell et al. (2010) shows that house prices are a key determinant of financial crisis probabilities in OECD economies, and contribute significantly towards systemic banking risk. This must lead the regulator to assess carefully the role of the housing market in this relationship, and if necessary impose regulatory restrictions on the market so as to ensure it functions in a way that reflects the best interests of the economy. In this note we look at the evolution of real house prices in the UK, noting that they have a strong cyclical pattern. We then look at the factors that might affect the evolution of real house prices, and we estimate a dynamic equation describing those prices. After considering a wide set of factors, we demonstrate that there is little role for the supply of housing relative to the number of households. This may be because the ratio of these two variables has been relatively constant over the past thirty years. We show that real borrowing costs, real incomes and the loan-to-income ratio are significant factors determining the long-run path of real house prices, and that front loading problems from high short-term nominal interest rates affect the path of adjustment. Overvaluations can persist for years, and we would judge that real house prices are currently fundamentally overvalued by around 10 per cent. If loan-to-income ratios are reduced then the fundamental overvaluation will increase, and such a policy will put further downward pressure on real house prices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Tao Hu ◽  
Ceri Davies

This essay researches the question, “To what extent did monetary policy contribute towards the recent financial crisis and subsequent recession in the US and UK?” This article begins by demonstrating monetary policy’s role in guiding the economy’s development under different economic fundamentals. Then the essay puts forward the existence of possibility that monetary policy may cause potential dangers for the economy. In the next chapter, the essay illustrates the guideline for monetary policy namely Taylor rule and economists’ arguments and explanations for the US monetary policy in the past decade. In chapter 3, this article estimates the nominal interest rates for both the US and the UK based on Taylor rule for different periods and illustrates influences of monetary policy actually taken for each country in different periods. In chapter 4, the article tests the relationship between monetary policy’s deviations from Taylor rule and financial imbalances by using the OLS method and explains results. Finally, in chapter 5, the article concludes that in some degree monetary policy’s deviations from Taylor rule prescriptions contribute to a build-up of financial imbalances.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael White

Purpose – This paper aims to examine factors affecting house prices separating cyclical and structural influences. In addition to considering the role of income and interest rates, it examines whether access to a key source of liquidity, mortgage finance, could affect the long-term behaviour of the market rather than being a short run impact. In addition, the paper considers whether the effects of mortgage funding and the financial crisis affect all regions equally or whether there exist particular differences across regions of the UK. Design/methodology/approach – Using quarterly time series data from 1983q1 to 2011q2, the paper employs a Johansen cointegration approach to identify the long-run (permanent) and short-run (transitory) factors affecting house prices both at national and regional levels. It identifies whether there is a separate influence for mortgage lending from interest rates and general money market liquidity, as captured by money supply M3, and whether these effects are permanent or temporary. The paper employs impulse response functions to examine house price evolution due to innovations in mortgage lending and quantifies these effects with and without the financial crisis. Findings – The findings indicate that real personal disposable income, mortgage market liquidity, interest rates and money supply as well as housing stock supply impact house prices permanently with the expected signs. The findings are broadly consistent at national and regional level, although there are some significant regional variations in results. The mean reversion of the housing markets is captured via the error correction term which is significant at the national level and in all but three regions. Impulse response functions show how house prices respond to shocks in mortgage lending and how this varies with and without a financial crisis. Research limitations/implications – The importance of mortgage lending to the housing market is a clear result from the research in addition to income, interest rate and money supply effects. One implication is that factors affecting mortgage lending supply can impact the housing market in both the short and long run. Practical implications – Given the significance of mortgage finance for house price evolution, the paper discusses how the Help-to-Buy policy may help to overcome the limitations created by the reaction of the mortgage lending sector to the financial crisis. Social implications – Access to homeownership has been limited by greater downpayment constraints introduced by lenders since 2008/2009. Policies that reduce these constraints may enable households to change to the type of tenure they prefer. Originality/value – The paper identifies the importance of mortgage lending for the housing market both nationally and regionally using an econometric approach that quantifies the role of fundamentals in both the long and short run.


Author(s):  
Rakesh K. Bissoondeeal ◽  
Leonidas Tsiaras

AbstractWe investigate the nonlinear links between the housing and stock markets in the UK using copulas. Our empirical analysis is conducted at both the national and regional levels. We also examine how closely London house prices are linked to those in other parts of the UK. We find that (i) the dependence between the different markets exhibits significant time-variation, (ii) at the national level, the relationship between house prices and the stock market is characterised by left tail dependence, i.e., they are more likely to crash, rather than boom, together, (iii) although left tail dependence with the stock market is a prominent feature of some regions, it is by no means a universally shared characteristic, (iv) the dependence between property prices in London and other parts of the UK displays widespread regional variations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagjit S. Chadha ◽  
Morris Perlman

We examine the relationship between prices and interest rates for seven advanced economies in the period up to 1913, emphasising the UK. There is a significant long-run positive relationship between prices and interest rates for the core commodity standard countries. Keynes ([1930] 1971) labelled this positive relationship the ‘Gibson Paradox’. A number of theories have been put forward as possible explanations of the paradox but they do not fit the long-run pattern of the relationship. We find that a formal model in the spirit of Wicksell (1907) and Keynes ([1930] 1971) offers an explanation for the paradox: where the need to stabilise the banking sector's reserve ratio, in the presence of an uncertain ‘natural’ rate, can lead to persistent deviations of the market rate of interest from its ‘natural’ level and consequently long-run swings in the price level.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lo ◽  
Michael James McCord ◽  
John McCord ◽  
Peadar Thomas Davis ◽  
Martin Haran

Purpose The price-to-rent ratio is often regarded as an important indicator for measuring housing market imbalance and inefficiency. A central question is the extent to which house prices and rents form part of the same market and thus whether they respond similarly to parallel stimulus. If they are close proxies dynamically, then this provides valuable market intelligence, particularly where causal relationships are evident. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the relationship between market and rental pricing to uncover the price switching dynamics of residential real estate property types and whether the deviation between market rents and prices are integrated over both the long- and short-term. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses cointegration, Wald exogeneity tests and Granger causality models to determine the existence, if any, of cointegration and lead-lag relationships between prices and rents within the Belfast property market, as well as the price-to-rent ratios amongst its five main property sub-markets over the time period M4, 2014 to M12 2018. Findings The findings provide some novel insights in relation to the pricing dynamics within Belfast. Housing and rental prices are cointegrated suggesting that they tend to move in tandem in the long run. It is further evident that in the short-run, the price series Granger-causes that of rents inferring that sales price information unidirectionally diffuse to the rental market. Further, the findings on price-to-rent ratios reveal that the detached sector appears to Granger-cause those of other property types except apartments in both the short- and long-term, suggesting possible spill-over of pricing signals from the top-end to the lower strata of the market. Originality/value The importance of understanding the relationship between house prices and rental market performance has gathered momentum. Although the house price-rent ratio is widely used as an indicator of over and undervaluation in the housing market, surprisingly little is known about the theoretical relationship between the price-rent ratio across property types and their respective inter-relationships.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 849-864
Author(s):  
Arash Hadizadeh

Purpose In the Iranian economy, investing in the housing market has been very important and beneficial for investors and households, because of inflationary environment, low real interest rates, underdeveloped financial and tax systems and economic sanctions. Hence, prediction of house prices is the main concern of housing market agents in the economy. The purpose of this paper is to test the stationary properties of Iran's provinces to improve the prediction of future housing prices. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors have tested the stationary properties of 20 Iran’s province centers over the period from 1993 to 2017 using a novel Fourier quantile unit root test and conventional ordinary/generalized least squares (O/GLS) linear unit root/stationary tests. Findings According to conventional O/GLS linear unit root/stationary tests, most of the house prices series exhibit random walk behavior, whereas by applying the Fourier quantile unit root test, the null hypothesis of unit root is rejected for 15 out of 20 series. Other results indicated that house prices of cities responded differently to positive and negative shocks. Originality/value Previous studies only addressed conventional OLS or GLS linear unit root or stationary tests, but novel Fourier quantile unit root test was not used. New results were obtained based on this unit root test, that, as a priori knowledge, will help benefiting from the positive effects, or avoiding being victimized by the negative effects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maher Asal

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the presence of a housing bubble using Swedish data from 1986Q1-2016Q4 by using various methods. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors use affordability indicators and asset-pricing approaches, including the price-to-income ratio, price-to-rent ratio and user cost, supplemented by a qualitative discussion of other factors affecting house prices. Second, the authors use cointegration techniques to compute the fundamental (or long-run) price, which is then compared with the actual price to test the degree of Sweden’s housing price bubble during the studied period. Third, they apply the univariate right-tailed unit root test procedure to capture bursting bubbles and to date-stamp bubbles. Findings The authors find evidence for rational housing bubbles with explosive behavioral components beginning in 2004. These bubbles do not continuously diverge but instead periodically revert to their fundamental value. However, the deviation is persistent, and without any policy correction, it takes decades for real house prices to return to equilibrium. Originality/value The policy implication is that monetary policy designed to contain mortgage demand and thereby prevent burst episodes in the housing market must address external imbalances, as revealed in real exchange rate undervaluation. It is unlikely that current policies will stop the rise of house prices, as the growth of mortgage credit, improvement in Sweden’s international competitiveness and the path of interest rates are much more important factors.


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