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Housing Markets in Austria, Germany and Switzerland

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Abstract

Running counter to the sharp rise in house prices and housing wealth observed since the mid- 1990s in the vast majority of European countries, real house prices in Germany and Austria were going down in this period and did not start to rise until 2010 or 2007, respectively. This reflects national idiosyncracies in housing markets and motivated the discussion of relevant peculiarities in, and similarities among, Austria and Germany as well as Switzerland. Among the most important structural features that ensured housing market stability in these three countries during the last decade are well-developed rental markets, low homeownership ratios and conservative lending standards. While the tax systems of Germany and Austria do not encourage indebtedness, Swiss taxpayers benefit from taking on a lot of leverage. Recent house price increases in all three countries under review here can be attributed to various crises-related channels (extremely low interest rates, economic uncertainty, safe-haven effect) as well as to demographic developments, including immigration. The Swiss authorities have already implemented a number of macroprudential measures to safeguard the banking sector.

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  • Martin Schneider & Karin Wagner, 2015. "Housing Markets in Austria, Germany and Switzerland," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 42-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:onb:oenbmp:y:2015:i:1:b:4
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    1. Lojschova, Adriana & Wagner, Karin & Schmidt, Alexander & Akantziliotou, Calliope & Dujardin, Marine & Kennedy, Gerard & Pontuch, Peter, 2015. "Report on residential real estate and financial stability in the EU, Section 1. on Structural features of residential real estate markets," MPRA Paper 79723, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Christian Reiner & Robert Musil, 2023. "The regional variation of a housing boom. Disparities of land prices in Austria, 2000–2018 [Die regionale Differenzierung eines Immobilien-Booms. Disparitäten der Baulandpreise in Österreich, 2000–," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 43(1), pages 125-146, April.
    3. Enisse Kharroubi & Emanuel Kohlscheen, 2017. "Consumption-led expansions," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    4. Ando, Michihito & Dahlberg, Matz & Engström, Gustav, 2017. "The risks of nuclear disaster and its impact on housing prices," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 13-16.
    5. Ihle Dorothee & Siebert-Meyerhoff Andrea, 2019. "The Evolution of Immigrants’ Homeownership in Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(2), pages 155-201, April.
    6. Figari, Francesco & Hollan, Katarina & Matsaganis, Manos & Zolyomi, Eszter, 2019. "Recent changes in housing policies and their distributional impact across Europe," EUROMOD Working Papers EM12/19, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    7. Josue Cox & Sydney C. Ludvigson, 2018. "Drivers of the Great Housing Boom-Bust: Credit Conditions, Beliefs, or Both?," NBER Working Papers 25285, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    house prices; rental markets; housing finance; taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

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