The Effects of Government Policies on Real Estate Sector

Abstract: The study investigates the linkages between government policies and the real estate sector via a case study that was carried out on the Japanese market. The applicability of the results were then discussed in terms of whether similar trends could be seen in other economies facing similar demographic and economic issues as Japan. While the real estate sector linkages with the overall economy are relatively well studied topic, there are less studies regarding the links between government policies and the real estate market. The studies in the field furthermore in general conclude that the results are country and location dependent, thus illustrating there to be a research gap. Given that real estate sector is linked with the overall performance of the economy, and fluctuations within the sector can magnify ups and downs of the overall economy, it is of importance to investigate the topic in order to, for example, illustrate the effect that policy changes will have on the real estate sector and thus potentially also on the overall market. The approach of the study was to carry out quantitative analysis through the use of econometric analysis methods such as cointegration and Granger causality. The robustness of the econometric analysis results were then further discussed through the use of qualitative analysis tool of expert interviews. The applicability of the econometric results to other economies was analyzed with simple comparison of key variables. The results of the study indicate that government policies have very little effect on the real estate sector. The econometric analysis suggests that neither monetary nor fiscal policy had notable effect on the real estate sector, especially price development. On the other hand, interest rates were seen as a most notable government policy tool to have an effect on the real estate sector in the expert interviews. As a conclusion, it was argued that the low level of cointegrations and lack of causalities could be due to government policies having an indirect effect on the real estate market via altering the demand and supply for real estate rather than leading to changes within the sector directly. For the comparison, some of the Nordic countries and Germany were noted to be facing similar issues as Japan in terms of ageing population, urbanization trend, notable government debt levels, and low interest rates. It was however noted, that the econometric analysis results could not be mirrored to these markets directly due to the rather straightforward comparison, but rather the results could act as a guideline.