Editorial 15-3 International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-06-2022-156
• Published date: 22 April 2022
• Date: 22 April 2022
• Pages: 501-503
• Subject Matter: Property management & built environment,Real estate & property,Housing markets
• Author: Richard Reed

Editorial 15-3 International

Journal of Housing Markets

and Analysis

Welcome to the third issue in the 15th volume of the International Journal of Housing

Markets and Analysis. This issue contains 11 research papers from 11 different countries

which highlights the important diversity of coverage for this journal, rather than being

limited to a small number of only developed countries. As much as every parcel of land is

unique, every country has unique challenges where research into these problems can

provide important insightsfor all housing market stakeholders. Also, of noteis the variation

in the type of research conductedby each author/s, ranging from highly theoretical through

to an analysis of policy documents and detailed literature reviews. The first paper from

Singapore examines the linkages between price and rent where the analysis is undertaken

by analysing the price–rent dynamics in the housing market. It was shown that the urban

market experienced high growth(i.e. rents increased at a higher rate than prices) duringthe

global financial crisis. Also, the findings confirmed that rental levels drive prices and non-

landed housing (i.e. offices in central areas) lead other residential housing (non-residential

housing) in both price and rental levels.These results are important because there is now a

level of uncertainty in the housing market because of the COVID-19 pandemic where city-

based residents alsohave a strong incentive to relocate to the suburbs.

The second paper from New Zealand investigates the cointegration and long-run

relationship between affordability measures of home ownership and rental levels. The

methodology is based on investigating the existence of cointegration and unidirectional

causality effects between house price affordability (HPA) and rental price affordability

(RPA). It also examines the lead–lag effects of HPA and RPA on each other, as well as the

mortgage rate using generalized least square approach and for regions using an ordinary

least squares model. The findings confirm the existence of cointegration and unidirectional

causality effects between HPA and RPA across 11 regions. In addition the findings

highlighted the lead–lag effects of HPAand RPA on each other and also with the mortgage

rate for all 11 regions. Those effects are changed at individuallead–lag variables and among

different regions. The third paper from Germany seeks to reduce the complexities around

the current polycentric city structure and identify a reliable classification housing markets

based on 17 identified market parameters. The methodology uses a two-step clustering

algorithm combining k-means with Ward’s method to develop the classification scheme. The

clustering process is preceded by a principal component analysis to retain the most important

dimensions of the market parameters, whereas the robustness of the results is investigated

with a bootstrapping method. The findings confirmed that residential markets can be

segmented into four separate groups. It was noted that geographic contiguity is important,

however it is not a main factor. The bootstrapping analysis found the majority of pairwise city

relations (88.5%) to be non-random. These findings can be used in portfolio management to

reduce unsystematic investment risks and to formulate investment strategies.

The fourth paper from Malaysia examines the effects of housing location, financial

capability and housing neighbourhood on the housing preferences of young civil servants.

The data collection was based on a self-administered questionnaire distributed to 400

respondents being a young civil servant working in Malaysia aged 20–40years and

Editorial

501

InternationalJournal of Housing

Marketsand Analysis

Vol.15 No. 3, 2022

pp. 501-503

© Emerald Publishing Limited

1753-8270

DOI 10.1108/IJHMA-06-2022-156