Effects Of Land Auctions On Private Housing Market: An Empirical Study In Hong Kong

Acquisition of land is the prerequisite of housing development. However, land and houses are traded in two separate markets, with the former being traded by developers and the later by end-users or investors either in the primary or secondary markets. Further to the findings of a previous empirical study by Chau (2008) that unexpected public land auction outcomes brought asymmetric impacts to the private housing market, this study aims to investigate the effects of the announcement of an auction and its details on the transaction activities in the private housing sector such as the volume of transaction and transacted prices. Particularly, this study would also focus on investigating how the characteristics of the auction winners, i.e. the developers, will affect the price discovery process of private housing market. Winner's characteristics include its scale, profitability, past bidding history; experience in the locality of the land being auctioned. In short, this study intends to answer the question of whether an unexpected auction outcome with a winner with good track record or perceived to be an industry leader will provide additional information to the housing market. Likewise, whether a winner containing better location-specific information in the land being auctioned will bring a more spatial signalling effect to the housing market will also be addressed. An event study will be employed.