IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhouse/v55y2022ics1051137721000632.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of housing loan subsidies on affordability: Evidence from Croatia

Author

Listed:
  • Kunovac, Davor
  • Zilic, Ivan

Abstract

In this paper, we explore whether a program of housing loan subsidies introduced in Croatia contributed to housing price increases. The subsidy was designed to cover a portion of annuities in the initial period of the housing loan repayment, with a distinct feature that a household could apply for the subsidy only during a month-long period. Using a dataset on housing transactions we document that the subsidy disrupted the usual intra-annual dynamics of residential transactions as they became very concentrated in the month when housing loan subsidy applications ended. However, we do not find any descriptive evidence that the aggregate homeownership rate increased. Using an event study approach we find that the housing prices increased just around the introduction of the subsidy, especially in the most developed municipalities which absorbed more than 60% of the subsidies. Exploiting the subsidy built-in implementation rules we identify the effect of the subsidy via a dynamic difference-in-difference approach which corroborates our baseline conclusions. Using the regional variation in the subsidy intensity, we also find that housing price capitalization was driven by prices in areas and regions with already active housing markets. Finally, to discard the possibility that the observed housing price increase is confounded by tourism, we also explore the nexus between tourism and the housing market in Croatia and conclude that our baseline results hold.

Suggested Citation

  • Kunovac, Davor & Zilic, Ivan, 2022. "The effect of housing loan subsidies on affordability: Evidence from Croatia," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:55:y:2022:i:c:s1051137721000632
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2021.101808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1051137721000632
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhe.2021.101808?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Berger & Nicholas Turner & Eric Zwick, 2020. "Stimulating Housing Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(1), pages 277-321, February.
    2. Jonathan Gruber & Amalie Jensen & Henrik Kleven, 2021. "Do People Respond to the Mortgage Interest Deduction? Quasi-experimental Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 273-303, May.
    3. Wojciech Kopczuk & David Munroe, 2015. "Mansion Tax: The Effect of Transfer Taxes on the Residential Real Estate Market," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 214-257, May.
    4. Dietz, Robert D. & Haurin, Donald R., 2003. "The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 401-450, November.
    5. Besley, Timothy & Meads, Neil & Surico, Paolo, 2014. "The incidence of transaction taxes: Evidence from a stamp duty holiday," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 61-70.
    6. Carozzi, Felipe & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Yu, Xiaolun, 2024. "On the economic impacts of mortgage credit expansion policies: Evidence from help to buy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Christian A. L. Hilber & Tracy M. Turner, 2014. "The Mortgage Interest Deduction and its Impact on Homeownership Decisions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(4), pages 618-637, October.
    8. Gobillon, Laurent & le Blanc, David, 2008. "Economic effects of upfront subsidies to ownership: The case of the Prêt à Taux Zéro in France," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-33, March.
    9. Davor Kunovac & Ivan Žilić, 2020. "Home sweet home: The effects of housing loan subsidies on the housing market in Croatia," Working Papers 60, The Croatian National Bank, Croatia.
    10. Ben Dachis & Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2012. "The effects of land transfer taxes on real estate markets: evidence from a natural experiment in Toronto," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 327-354, March.
    11. Christian A. L. Hilber & Wouter Vermeulen, 2016. "The Impact of Supply Constraints on House Prices in England," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 358-405, March.
    12. Davor Kunovac & Karlo Kotarac, 2019. "Residential Property Prices in Croatia," Surveys 37, The Croatian National Bank, Croatia.
    13. Greg Kaplan & Kurt Mitman & Giovanni L. Violante, 2020. "The Housing Boom and Bust: Model Meets Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(9), pages 3285-3345.
    14. Donald R. Haurin & Toby L. Parcel & R. Jean Haurin, 2002. "Does Homeownership Affect Child Outcomes?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 30(4), pages 635-666.
    15. Hanson, Andrew, 2012. "Size of home, homeownership, and the mortgage interest deduction," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 195-210.
    16. Kamila Sommer & Paul Sullivan, 2018. "Implications of US Tax Policy for House Prices, Rents, and Homeownership," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 241-274, February.
    17. Dan Andrews & Aida Caldera Sánchez & Åsa Johansson, 2011. "Housing Markets and Structural Policies in OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 836, OECD Publishing.
    18. Aida Caldera Sánchez & Dan Andrews, 2011. "To Move or not to Move: What Drives Residential Mobility Rates in the OECD?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 846, OECD Publishing.
    19. Michael Carlos Best & Henrik Jacobsen Kleven, 2018. "Housing Market Responses to Transaction Taxes: Evidence From Notches and Stimulus in the U.K," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(1), pages 157-193.
    20. Dan Andrews & Aida Caldera Sánchez, 2011. "The Evolution of Homeownership Rates in Selected OECD Countries: Demographic and Public Policy Influences," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2011(1), pages 1-37.
    21. DiPasquale, Denise & Glaeser, Edward L., 1999. "Incentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 354-384, March.
    22. Hembre, Erik, 2018. "An examination of the first-time homebuyer tax credit," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 196-216.
    23. Feng Hu, 2013. "Homeownership and Subjective Wellbeing in Urban China: Does Owning a House Make You Happier?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 951-971, February.
    24. David E. Rappoport, 2016. "Do Mortgage Subsidies Help or Hurt Borrowers?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-081, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muhammad Adil Rauf & Bruce Frayne, 2024. "Affordable Housing – Challenges and Constraints for Local Governance in Canada," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 17(1), pages 103-103, January.
    2. Mikulić, Josip & Vitezić, Vanja & Srhoj, Stjepan & Kuliš, Zvonimir, 2024. "Tourism boom, housing doom: Excessive tourism and international emigration," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Davor Kunovac & Ivan Žilić, 2020. "Home sweet home: The effects of housing loan subsidies on the housing market in Croatia," Working Papers 60, The Croatian National Bank, Croatia.
    2. Hembre, Erik & Dantas, Raissa, 2022. "Tax incentives and housing decisions: Effects of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Petkova, Kunka & Weichenrieder, Alfons, 2017. "Price and Quantity Effects of the German Real Estate Transfer Tax," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168305, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. Carozzi, Felipe & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Yu, Xiaolun, 2024. "On the economic impacts of mortgage credit expansion policies: Evidence from help to buy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Daniel Jonas Schmidt, "undated". "Property transfer taxes, residential mobility, and welfare," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-042/VI, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Eerola, Essi & Harjunen, Oskari & Lyytikäinen, Teemu & Saarimaa, Tuukka, 2021. "Revisiting the effects of housing transfer taxes," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    7. repec:ehl:lserod:124116 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Bontemps, Christian & Cherbonnier, Frédéric & Magnac, Thierry, 2023. "Reducing transaction taxes on housing in highly regulated economies”," TSE Working Papers 23-1486, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    9. Essi Eerola & Oskari Harjunen & Teemu Lyytikäinen & Tuukka Saarimaa, 2019. "Effects of Housing Transfer Taxes on Household Mobility," CESifo Working Paper Series 7750, CESifo.
    10. Leo Kaas & Georgi Kocharkov & Edgar Preugschat & Nawid Siassi, 2021. "Low Homeownership in Germany—a Quantitative Exploration," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 128-164.
    11. Agarwal, Sumit & Li, Keyang & Qin, Yu & Wu, Jing & Yan, Jubo, 2020. "Tax evasion, capital gains taxes, and the housing market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    12. Christian A. L. Hilber & Olivier Schoni, 2022. "Housing policy and affordable housing," CEP Occasional Papers 56, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    13. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Lyytikäinen, Teemu, 2017. "Transfer taxes and household mobility: Distortion on the housing or labor market?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 57-73.
    14. Christian A. L. Hilber, 2017. "The Economic Implications of House Price Capitalization: A Synthesis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 301-339, April.
    15. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2014. "Homeownership and Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mortgage Debt and Commitment," CESifo Working Paper Series 5048, CESifo.
    16. Fritzsche, Carolin & Vandrei, Lars, 2019. "The German real estate transfer tax: Evidence for single-family home transactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 131-143.
    17. Michael Warlters, 2023. "Stamp Duty Reform and Home Ownership," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 99(327), pages 492-511, December.
    18. Elinder, Mikael & Persson, Lovisa, 2017. "House price responses to a national property tax reform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 18-39.
    19. Manning Clifford & John Freebairn, 2021. "Stamp duty and equity in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2021n08, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    20. Andrew E. Clark & Luis Diaz-Serrano, 2023. "Do individuals adapt to all types of housing transitions?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 645-672, June.
    21. Manyi Luo & Shihu Zhong & Jie Chen, 2024. "The sweet burden: Does homeownership improve the economic status of households?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Housing loan subsidy; Price capitalization; Hedonic regressions; Evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:55:y:2022:i:c:s1051137721000632. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622881 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.