The Potential for Consumer Segmentation in the Finnish Housing Market

This article examines whether cluster analysis can be used to identify groups of Finnish residents with similar housing preferences. Because homebuilders in Finland have been providing relatively homogeneous products to an increasingly diverse population, current housing may not represent the occupiers' preferences so a segmentation approach relying on socioeconomic characteristics and expressed preferences may not be sufficient. We use data collected via questionnaire in a principal component analysis followed by a hierarchical cluster analysis to determine whether different combinations of housing attributes are important to groups of residents. We can identify four clusters of housing residents based on important characteristics when looking for a house. The clusters describe Finnish people in different phases of the life cycle and with different preferences based on their recreational activities and financial expenditures. Mass customization of housing could be used to better appeal to these different clusters of consumers who share similar preferences, increasing consumer satisfaction and improving profitability.     

International Transmission Mechanisms and Contagion in Housing Markets

This paper explores international transmission mechanism and its role in contagion effect in the housing markets across six major Asian cities. The analysis is based on the identification of house price diffusion effects through a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model estimated using quarterly data for six major Asian cities (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Bangkok) from 1991Q1 to 2011Q2. The empirical results indicate that the open economies heavily relying on international trade such as Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), Taiwan (Taipei) and Thailand (Bangkok) show positive correlations between the economy's openness and house prices, which is consistent with the Balassa–Samuelson hypothesis. Interestingly, some region‐specific conditions also appear to play important roles as determinants of house price movements, which may be driven by restrictive housing policies and demand–supply imbalances such as Singapore and Bangkok. These results are reasonably robust across several model specifications. The findings bear significant implications for formulation of investment strategy and public policies.     

Mature Consumer Awareness and Attitudes Toward Retirement Housing and Long-Term Care Alternatives

The retirement housing and long-term care industries have been responding to the needs of aging consumers by developing a wide range of housing facilities and personal care services. The increasing variety of long-term care options is expected to better satisfy the heterogeneous needs of older consumers. Results of a national study and qualitative research suggest that many present and potential consumers of supportive housing and long-term care services do not have a good understanding of these offerings. Many are unaware of the alternatives available. Mature consumers often perceive all long-term care negatively as nursing homes. The proliferation in the variety of housing and long-term care services and the lack of standardization in labeling products may be contributing to the misunderstanding of various options. This misunderstanding leads to consumers not obtaining the housing and long-term care services best suited to their needs. Government agencies, consumer interest groups, and housing and long-term care providers can help to differentiate products and educate consumers to better serve their needs.     

Pre-retirees' assessment of housing adequacy and their propensity to move

The purpose of this study is to determine how adequate pre-retirees perceived their homes would be for retirement, and their propensity to move after retirement. This study assesses the relationships between certain socio-demographic variables and feelings and plans for retirement, current housing tenure and structure conditions of the home, the anticipated adequacy of the size of the current home for retirement, and the anticipated locational decision after retirement. Three hypothesized models were tested, each succeeding model adding another level, using the above variables. The hypothesized models were tested using logistic regression. Marital status and family income are statistically significant in the prediction of current housing tenure and structure conditions. The amount of planning for retirement, assessed by the respondent in comparison to others of similar age, is a significant predictor of anticipated satisfaction with the present dwelling at retirement. Anticipated satisfaction with the present dwelling at retirement and age are statistically significant in the prediction of likelihood of moving at retirement.     

The Effects of Changes in Implicit Energy Costs on Housing Prices

The determinants of housing sale price per square foot were estimated for houses sold in two time periods, 1971–1976 and 1977–1980 using hedonic price theory and regression analysis. Natural gas consumption did not affect sale prices in the first period, but higher consumption levels reduced sale price per square foot in the second period up to $88 ccf/sf year. At higher levels the sale price rose with increases in gas consumption.     

Analysis of tenure choice and housing expenditure patterns

This study employs a selectivity model to account for the simultaneity existing between determinations of tenure status and level of spending. Important socio-economic characteristics affecting housing tenure were identified. Results indicate that income had a more important effect on the housing expenditures of renters than owners at a lower household income level. The race of the household head had a significant effect on variations in housing expenditures for owners but not for renters, suggesting that race may be a more important factor in owner-occupant than in renter-occupant housing. While household size may be an important factor in a family's decision-making in terms of buying a home, it is suggested that once tenure status is selected family size had no significant impacts on housing expenditures. Similarly, married couples were most likely to own their own homes than were other household types; however, married households did not spend more or less than other types of households on either owned or rented accommodation. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that in assessing empirical results, attention should be given to meaningful interpretation of estimated selectivity effects as well as to testing for occurrence of selectivity bias.     

加拿大公共住房PPPs模式实践与启示

PPPs模式被世界上许多国家应用于公共住房建设领域,为增加公共住房供给提供了一条新的途径。选择加拿大三个PPPs模式的公共住房建设案例,从供给对象、参与主体、资金来源、运营与管理等方面进行比较,归纳加拿大住房PPPs模式的特征,指出加拿大住房PPPs模式对我国的启示。     

中国四大城市住房市场化程度及其社会人口学因素分析——以北京、上海、广州和重庆为例

采用中国第五次人口普查户抽样数据,比较分析了北京、上海、广州和重庆四大城市市辖区分户口性质住房市场化程度及住房条件改善状况.应用Logistic回归模型探讨了影响四大城市住房市场化的主要社会人口学因素.研究显示户主不同出生队列以及户主户口性质和状况、职业、行业等因素对住房市场化的影响最为显著.     

论公租房的功能与住房保障对象——以上海公租房为例

中国城镇住房问题源于消费者支付能力的不足,因此财政补贴是政府提供住房保障的基本内容。与廉租房和经适房相比,公租房是副作用最小的一种住房保障方式。中国城镇租金市场化的公租房供给不能发挥住房保障的职能,其继续存在只能降低住宅市场和国民经济的运行效率。公租房租金市场化的实质是继续和维护现行的劣质土地财政。中国必须将公租房租金确定在劳动力再生产成本的水平上,排除城市地租的干扰,才能扩大公租房的覆盖面,有效解决中国城镇的住房保障问题。     

2011年房地产政策调控成效评价及2012年市场预测

中国房地产调控目标已由"遏制房价过快上涨"升级为"促进房价合理回归",在归纳2011年住房市场主要运行特征的基础上,引入协调度匹配指数模型对2001年～2011年中国住房价格是否达到"合理回归"进行了评价,并从影响住房市场的需求、供给及调控政策三个方面,对2012年中国住房市场运行趋势进行了预测。     

可持续发展与可负担住房关系研究

一般而言,在城市可持续发展与可负担住房之间存在一定的冲突,可负担住房和城市可持续发展是世界各国普遍面临的重大挑战。可持续发展意味着要发展紧凑型城市,而紧凑发展的成本要高于低密度住房开发。本文对可持续发展与可负担住房的关系进行了研究,旨在提高人们对可持续住房开发和可负担住房现行做法的理解和认识,认为可负担住房的很多目标与可持续发展的目标是密切联系的,许多旨在实现可持续发展的政策同样有助于提高住房的可负担性。     

HOUSING DEFECTS IN NEWLY PURCHASED HOMES: IMPLICATIONS FOR FAMILY RESOURCE MANAGEMENT*

The occurrence of unexpected housing defects and the expense of repair can be a sizeable burden for the unprepared home owner. Within the family management framework, unexpected event demands play an important role in the management of resources. To assess the dimension of the problem, a survey of recent home buyers was undertaken to provide empirical data on the incidence and cost of major housing problems, as well as characteristics of the buyer and homes purchased. Multiple regression and profit procedures were used to determine what factors were important in predicting incidence and cost of repair.     

Conceptualising the Role of International Capital Flows for Housing Markets

The existing literature on the role of international capital flows for housing markets can be classified into approaches which focus on the macro relationship between the current account and housing prices on the one hand and studies which specify more specific transmission channels on the other. Building on this literature, we conceptualise the role of international capital flows for housing markets via four central transmission channels. We suggest that by differentiating among these channels, the risk build-up potential of capital flows for housing markets can be evaluated more precisely than in the early literature on global imbalances.     

韩国住房政策的历史演变及启示

韩国的住房政策具有较强的政府主导型特征,政府不仅对住房市场进行了积极的政策调控,而且还直接参与了住房建设。尤其对低收入阶层的住房问题,韩国政府采取了政府直接投资和建设的政策。这一政策为韩国于2002年实现100%的住房普及率做出了积极的贡献。借鉴韩国住房政策的成功经验,对我国住房保障体系的建设具有重要的现实意义。     

个人住房抵押贷款的风险管理

个人住房抵押贷款作为一个新生事物 ,在我国开展的时间不长 ,全面推广此项业务的进展不平衡 ,在制度建设方面也还有许多不完善的地方 ,因此迫切需要进行个人住房抵押贷款风险管理的探讨。在全面分析个人住房抵押贷款风险的基础上 ,提出个人住房抵押贷款风险管理的相应对策。     

加拿大社会保障住房的发展及其启示

大力发展社会保障住房,尤其是非盈利性住房是加拿大成功解决中低收入居民住房问题的基本经验,也是作为福利国家政府社会福利措施的重要体现。本文对加拿大社会保障住房的发展历程进行了概括介绍,对加拿大社会保障住房的主要形式包括公共住房、非盈利住房、合作住房等从供给主体、融资来源、租赁对象、运作管理等进行了梳理与概括,对政府在加拿大社会保障住房发展中的作用及其政策实际效果进行评价,并结合我国住房保障事业发展的实际思考加拿大经验对我们的启示。     

Expropriation risk and housing prices: Evidence from an emerging market

This paper examines the microeconomic determinants of residential real estate prices in Caracas, Venezuela, using a private database containing 17,526 transactions from 2008 to 2009. The particular institutional characteristics of many countries in Latin America, and Venezuela in particular, where land invasions and expropriations (with only partial compensation) have been common threats to property owners, provide us with an opportunity to test the effects of these risks on housing prices using a unique database. The effect of these risks on property prices is negative and significant. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to quantify these impacts in the Hedonic pricing literature applied to real estate. Size, the number of parking spaces, the age of the property, the incidence of crime, and the average income in the neighborhood are significant determinants of prices. Finally, this paper analyzes the microeconomic determinants of housing prices at the municipal level.     

Housing wealth effect in emerging economies

In this paper I estimate the impact of changes in real and financial wealth on private consumption for a panel of 17 emerging economies from Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Households' consumption, income and the two measures of real and financial wealth – proxied by house and stock market prices – are found to be difference-stationary and co-integrated; by means of recent econometric techniques for heterogeneous panels, i.e. the pooled mean group estimator, inference is drawn about the long- and short-run relationships between the variables of interest. The main result of the analysis shows that both real and financial wealth positively affect households' consumption in the long-run, with the elasticity of housing wealth being larger than that of stock market wealth. Moreover, there is also a significant short-run adjustment from income, stock prices and house prices on consumption, i.e. consumption adjusts to its long-run relationship with lags. When the model is run for the two groups of countries separately, the long-run impact of an increase (decrease) in house prices is generally higher in Central and Eastern European economies with respect to Asian ones, which make them more vulnerable to further adverse housing market developments.     

经济适用房、土地价格与住宅价格——基于我国29个省级面板数据的实证研究

本文采用省级面板数据,研究经济适用房、土地价格与住宅价格之间的关系。研究发现:(1)土地出让价格、经济适用房价格和住宅价格之间存在长期均衡关系,土地出让价格和经济适用房对住宅价格的影响力度存在区域性差异;(2)短期内,经济适用房的替代效应大于收入效应,其供给有利于平抑商品房价格的上涨趋势;长期内,经济适用房的收入效应大于替代效应,其供给会起到推高房价的作用;(3)土地价格对住宅价格的长、短期影响效应均为正,但影响力度存在区域差异。     

试论开展住房调查的必要性

合理的住房分配是社会安定发展的基本保障,而住房有效分配的前提是摸清居民住房需求的底数。通过对我国住房表象隐藏下住房问题的根源进行探究,从房地产业可持续发展、住房保障体系完善、全民住房信用体系建立等方面论述了我国当前开展城市住房调查的必要性。