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Does Regulation Discourage Investors? Sales Price Effects of Rent Controls in Germany

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  • Lars Vandrei

Abstract

We analyze the extent to which sales prices for residential housing react to rent-price regulation. To this end, we exploit changes in apartment prices across the regulation treatment threshold. We examine a quasi-natural design in the German federal state of Brandenburg using transaction price data provided by the committee of evaluation experts. Brandenburg introduced both a capping limit for existing rental contracts as well as a price ceiling for new contracts for municipalities with tight housing markets in 2014. Whether or not a municipality falls under this classification is based upon a municipality’s housing market characteristics, which are translated into a specific score. This allows us to employ a regression discontinuity design with a sharp cutoff point. We compare sales prices in municipalities that are located marginally above the assignment threshold with the prices in those slightly below. Our results suggest that the regulations reduced sales prices for affected apartments by 20–30 %.

Suggested Citation

  • Lars Vandrei, 2018. "Does Regulation Discourage Investors? Sales Price Effects of Rent Controls in Germany," ifo Working Paper Series 262, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ifowps:_262
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    Cited by:

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    3. Gohl, Niklas, 2019. "House prices and spatial mobility: Lock-in effects on the German rental market," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203557, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. Konstantin A. Kholodilin, 2022. "Rent Control Effects through the Lens of Empirical Research: An almost Complete Review of the Literature," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2026, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Konstantin A. Kholodilin & Sebastian Kohl & Florian Müller, 2023. "Government-Made House Price Bubbles? Austerity, Homeownership, Rental, and Credit Liberalization Policies and the “Irrational Exuberance” on Housing Markets," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2061, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Friedrich Breyer & Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut & Matthias Wrede & Harald Simons & Lars Vandrei & Theresia Theurl & Ralph Henger & Konstantin Kholodilin & Sebastian Kohl, 2018. "Failure of social housing policy: How to create affordable housing?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 71(21), pages 03-30, November.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations

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