IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/sajeco/v76y2008i2p291-297.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Metropolitan House Prices In South Africa: Do They Converge?

Author

Listed:
  • Philippe Burger
  • Lizelle Janse Van Rensburg

Abstract

The question this paper investigates is whether or not different metropolitan areas each constitute a separate housing market or whether or not there is a single South African housing market. Theory on the Law of One Price suggests that if products or geographic areas belong in the same market, their absolute prices must converge, so that their relative prices are stationary. By using cross‐sectional time series data of five metropolitan areas, the paper tests for the Law of One Price by applying the Im, Pesaran and Shin panel unit root test. The paper finds strong evidence of convergence in large middle‐segment house prices and weaker support for convergence in medium middle‐segment house prices. In addition, the paper finds no evidence for convergence in small middle‐segment house prices. This suggests the existence of a national market for large and possibly middle‐segment houses in metropolitan areas, but separate metropolitan markets for small middle‐segment houses. In addition, the paper estimates the speed of convergence and finds that large middle‐segment house prices converge within two to seven quarters, while the speed of convergence for medium middle‐segment house prices in three of the five areas is five to eight quarters.

Suggested Citation

  • Philippe Burger & Lizelle Janse Van Rensburg, 2008. "Metropolitan House Prices In South Africa: Do They Converge?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(2), pages 291-297, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:76:y:2008:i:2:p:291-297
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00190.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00190.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00190.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dreher, Axel & Krieger, Tim, 2004. "Do gasoline prices converge in a unified Europe with non-harmonized tax rates?," Arbeitspapiere der Nordakademie 2004-04, Nordakademie - Hochschule der Wirtschaft.
    2. Stigler, George J & Sherwin, Robert A, 1985. "The Extent of the Market," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 555-585, October.
      • Stigler, George J. & Sherwin, Robert A., 1983. "The Extent of the Market," Working Papers 31, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    3. Goldberg, Pinelopi K. & Verboven, Frank, 2005. "Market integration and convergence to the Law of One Price: evidence from the European car market," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 49-73, January.
    4. David C. Parsley & Shang-Jin Wei, 1996. "Convergence to the Law of One Price Without Trade Barriers or Currency Fluctuations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(4), pages 1211-1236.
    5. Goetzmann, William Nelson, 1993. "The Single Family Home in the Investment Portfolio," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 201-222, May.
    6. Mario Forni, 2004. "Using Stationarity Tests in Antitrust Market Definition," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 6(2), pages 441-464.
    7. Smith, Lawrence B & Rosen, Kenneth T & Fallis, George, 1988. "Recent Developments in Economic Models of Housing Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 29-64, March.
    8. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    9. Isard, Peter, 1977. "How Far Can We Push the "Law of One Price"?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 942-948, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tsangyao Chang & Tsung-Pao Wu & Rangan Gupta, 2015. "Are house prices in South Africa really nonstationary? Evidence from SPSM-based panel KSS test with a Fourier function," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 32-53, January.
    2. Nicholas Apergis & Beatrice Simo-Kengne & Rangan Gupta, 2014. "The Long-Run Relationship Between Consumption, House Prices, and Stock Prices in South Africa: Evidence from Provincial-level Data," Journal of Real Estate Literature, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 83-99, January.
    3. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Gil-Alana, Luis A. & Payne, James E., 2012. "Comovements among U.S. state housing prices: Evidence from fractional cointegration," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 936-942.
    4. Holmes, Mark J. & Otero, Jesús & Panagiotidis, Theodore, 2011. "Investigating regional house price convergence in the United States: Evidence from a pair-wise approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 2369-2376.
    5. Faik Bilgili, 2016. "City Price Convergence in Turkey with Structural Breaks," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(3), pages 933-941.
    6. Sonali DAS , Rangan GUPTA & Patrick A. KAYA, 2010. "Convergence Of Metropolitan House Prices In South Africa: A Re-Examination Using Efficient Unit Root Tests," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 10(1).
    7. Ryan Greenaway‐McGrevy & Arthur Grimes & Mark Holmes, 2019. "Two countries, sixteen cities, five thousand kilometres: How many housing markets?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 353-370, February.
    8. Beatrice D. Simo-Kengne & Rangan Gupta & Manoel Bittencourt, 2013. "The Impact of House Prices on Consumption in South Africa: Evidence from Provincial-Level Panel VARs," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(8), pages 1133-1154, November.
    9. Gupta, Rangan & Jurgilas, Marius & Kabundi, Alain, 2010. "The effect of monetary policy on real house price growth in South Africa: A factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 315-323, January.
    10. Dayong Zhang & Qiang Ji & Wan-Li Zhao & Nicholas J Horsewood, 2021. "Regional housing price dependency in the UK: A dynamic network approach," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(5), pages 1014-1031, April.
    11. Aye, G.C. & Goswami, S. & Gupta, R., 2013. "Metropolitan House Prices In Regions of India: Do They Converge?," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 13(1), pages 135-144.
    12. Arthur Grimes & Mark Holmes, 2010. "New Zealand Housing Markets: Just a Bit-Player in the A-League?," Working Papers 10_07, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    13. Rangan Gupta & Christophe André & Luis Gil-Alana, 2015. "Comovement in Euro area housing prices: A fractional cointegration approach," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(16), pages 3123-3143, December.
    14. Mehmet Balcilar & Abebe Beyene & Rangan Gupta & Monaheng Seleteng, 2013. "‘Ripple’ Effects in South African House Prices," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(5), pages 876-894, April.
    15. Shu‐kam Lee & Paul Kwok‐ching Shum & Kai‐yin Woo, 2024. "Tests of goods market integration between China and African BRI countries," International Studies of Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 223-246, June.
    16. Nicholas Apergis & James Payne, 2012. "Convergence in U.S. house prices by state: evidence from the club convergence and clustering procedure," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 103-111, July.
    17. Goodness C. Aye & Samrat Goswami & Rangan Gupta, 2012. "Metropolitan House Prices In India: Do They Converge?," Working Papers 201220, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    18. Das, Sonali & Gupta, Rangan & Kabundi, Alain, 2009. "Could we have predicted the recent downturn in the South African housing market?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 325-335, December.
    19. Rangan Gupta & Sonali Das, 2008. "Spatial Bayesian Methods Of Forecasting House Prices In Six Metropolitan Areas Of South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(2), pages 298-313, June.
    20. Nicholas Apergis & Beatrice D. Simo-Kengne & Rangan Gupta, 2015. "Convergence In Provincial-Level South African House Prices: Evidence From The Club Convergence And Clustering Procedure," Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 2-17, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonali DAS , Rangan GUPTA & Patrick A. KAYA, 2010. "Convergence Of Metropolitan House Prices In South Africa: A Re-Examination Using Efficient Unit Root Tests," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 10(1).
    2. Hałka, Aleksandra & Leszczyńska-Paczesna, Agnieszka, 2019. "Price convergence in the European Union – What has changed?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 226-241.
    3. Goodness C. Aye & Samrat Goswami & Rangan Gupta, 2012. "Metropolitan House Prices In India: Do They Converge?," Working Papers 201220, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    4. Aye, G.C. & Goswami, S. & Gupta, R., 2013. "Metropolitan House Prices In Regions of India: Do They Converge?," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 13(1), pages 135-144.
    5. Waights, Sevrin, 2018. "Does the law of one price hold for hedonic prices?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(15), pages 3299-3317.
    6. Holmes, Mark J. & Otero, Jesús & Panagiotidis, Theodore, 2013. "On the dynamics of gasoline market integration in the United States: Evidence from a pair-wise approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 503-510.
    7. Ana Iregui & Jesús Otero, 2011. "Testing the law of one price in food markets: evidence for Colombia using disaggregated data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 269-284, April.
    8. Dreher, Axel & Krieger, Tim, 2004. "Do gasoline prices converge in a unified Europe with non-harmonized tax rates?," Arbeitspapiere der Nordakademie 2004-04, Nordakademie - Hochschule der Wirtschaft.
    9. Wimanda, Rizki E., 2009. "Price variability and price convergence: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 427-442, September.
    10. Crucini, Mario J. & Shintani, Mototsugu, 2008. "Persistence in law of one price deviations: Evidence from micro-data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 629-644, April.
    11. Méjean, Isabelle & Schwellnus, Cyrille, 2009. "Price convergence in the European Union: Within firms or composition of firms?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 1-10, June.
    12. Duch-Brown, Néstor & Grzybowski, Lukasz & Romahn, André & Verboven, Frank, 2021. "Are online markets more integrated than traditional markets? Evidence from consumer electronics," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    13. Chris Parker & Kamalini Ramdas & Nicos Savva, 2016. "Is IT Enough? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India’s Agriculture Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(9), pages 2481-2503, September.
    14. Rosés, Joan R., 2009. "Land markets and agrarian backwardness (Spain, 1900-1936)," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp09-02, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    15. Nigel F.B. Allington & Paul A. Kattuman & Florian A. Waldmann, 2005. "One Market, One Money, One Price?," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 1(3), December.
    16. Goldberg, Pinelopi K. & Verboven, Frank, 2005. "Market integration and convergence to the Law of One Price: evidence from the European car market," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 49-73, January.
    17. Suvankulov, Farrukh & Lau, Marco Chi Keung & Ogucu, Fatma, 2012. "Price regulation and relative price convergence: Evidence from the retail gasoline market in Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 325-334.
    18. Yin-Wong Cheung & Eiji Fujii, 2008. "Deviations from the Law of One Price in Japan," CESifo Working Paper Series 2275, CESifo.
    19. Pippenger, John, 2022. "The Law Of One Price, Borders And Purchasing Power Parity," University of California at Santa Barbara, Economics Working Paper Series qt5b17d1dr, Department of Economics, UC Santa Barbara.
    20. Nektarios A. Michail, 2020. "Convergence of consumption patterns in the European Union," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 979-994, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:76:y:2008:i:2:p:291-297. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.