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Time is money: How landbanking constrains housing supply

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  • Murray, Cameron K.

Abstract

Many housing policies aim to increase supply and reduce prices through rezoning, relying on the assumption that increasing allowable densities automatically accelerates the rate of housing supply. However, the existence of landbanking (land hoarding), where land able to be profitably developed for housing is withheld from the market in anticipation of future gains, undermines the logic of such policy changes.

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  • Murray, Cameron K., 2020. "Time is money: How landbanking constrains housing supply," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:49:y:2020:i:c:s1051137720300449
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2020.101708
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Brausewetter, Lars & Thomsen, Stephan L. & Trunzer, Johannes, 2022. "Explaining regional disparities in housing prices across German districts," IWH Discussion Papers 13/2022, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    2. Murray, Cameron & Gordon, Josh, 2023. "Pricing upzoning: A reply to critics," OSF Preprints d3mt6, Center for Open Science.
    3. Rutger-Jan Lange & Coen N. Teulings, 2021. "The option value of vacant land: Don't build when demand for housing is booming," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-022/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Yunho Cho & Shuyun May Li & Lawrence Uren, 2021. "Understanding Housing Affordability in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(3), pages 375-386, September.
    5. Murray, Cameron, 2020. "A housing supply absorption rate equation," OSF Preprints 7n8rj, Center for Open Science.
    6. Antoine Paccoud & Markus Hesse & Tom Becker & Magdalena Górczyńska, 2022. "Land and the housing affordability crisis: landowner and developer strategies in Luxembourg’s facilitative planning context," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1782-1799, October.
    7. Cameron K. Murray, 2022. "A Housing Supply Absorption Rate Equation," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 228-246, February.
    8. Murray, Cameron, 2022. "What’s the rush? New housing market absorption rate metrics and the incentive to slow housing supply," OSF Preprints xscg5, Center for Open Science.
    9. Glen Searle & Siqin Wang & Michael Batty & Yan Liu, 2022. "The Choice of Actor Variables in Agent-Based Cellular Automata Modelling Using Survey Data," Geographies, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-16, March.
    10. Murray, Cameron & Limb, Mark, 2020. "We zoned for density and got higher house prices: Supply and price effects of upzoning over 20 years," OSF Preprints zkt7v, Center for Open Science.
    11. Graeme Guthrie, 2023. "Land Hoarding and Urban Development," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 753-793, November.
    12. Murray, Cameron, 2019. "The Australian housing supply myth," OSF Preprints r925z, Center for Open Science.
    13. Zhu, Jin & Pawson, Hal & Han, Hoon & Li, Bingqin, 2022. "How can spatial planning influence housing market dynamics in a pro-growth planning regime? A case study of Shanghai," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    14. Murray, Cameron & Phibbs, Peter, 2022. "Evidence-lite zone: The weak evidence behind the economic case against planning regulation," OSF Preprints 69m23, Center for Open Science.
    15. Quintin Bradley, 2022. "The accountancy of marketisation: Fictional markets in housing land supply," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(3), pages 493-507, May.
    16. Murray, Cameron & Gordon, Josh, 2021. "Land as airspace: How rezoning privatizes public space (and why governments should not give it away for free)," OSF Preprints v89fg, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Land banking; Land hoarding; Housing supply; Housing policy; Dynamics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • 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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