Real-estate as a financial asset, a productive factor and a durable good : four essays on its price determinants[L'immobilier comme investissement financier, bien durable et actif productif : quatre essais sur les déterminants de ses prix]

This thesis gathers four essays on real estate markets. The first chapter focuses on real estate as a financial asset. It analyses the influence of real estate on portfolio choice and more precisely on the share of risky assets in the household's portfolio. We distinguish between the effect of property value and the effect of home equity and we obtain two opposite effects. The second chapter analyzes real estate as a durable good and explores the link between the price of the property and its characteristics : intrinsic or extrinsic (neighbourhood attributes). The third chapter estimates the impact of the rise of housing transfer tax in France on real estate volumes and prices. This reform implemented between 2014 and 2016 caused a decrease in the number of transactions only in markets where supply was high relative to demand. This suggests a strong inelasticity of demand in tight markets. Moreover, no effect on pre-tax sales prices is observed, meaning that the burden of the transfer tax rests on the buyer. The fourth chapter analyzes the effects of French Enterprise Zones (place-based policy) on real estate prices. The empirical results show that the zone implementation had an inflationary effect on business real estate and to a lesser extent on residential real estate. This inflationary effect is driven by the zones with low real estate supply elasticity.