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Bubble or riddle? An asset-pricing approach evaluation on China's housing market

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  • Feng, Qu
  • Wu, Guiying Laura

Abstract

Rapid house price growth and high price-to-income ratio in major Chinese cities have aroused a hot debate on whether there is an asset bubble in China's residential housing market. To investigate this question, we employ an equilibrium asset-pricing approach, which suggests a non-arbitrage condition on the rent-to-price ratio. This ratio should be equal to the difference between the user cost of housing capital and the expected appreciation in house prices. Using a novel micro-level data set on pair-wise matched price-to-rent ratio collected in the fourth quarter of 2013, and forecasting the expected house price appreciation based on fundamental factors, our empirical exercises do not suggest the existence of a house price bubble at the national level. However, this conclusion highly depends on the expected income growth rate and may not apply to individual markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Feng, Qu & Wu, Guiying Laura, 2015. "Bubble or riddle? An asset-pricing approach evaluation on China's housing market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 376-383.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:46:y:2015:i:c:p:376-383
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2015.02.004
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    House prices; Asset pricing approach; Rent-to-price ratio;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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