Housing Markets and Resource Sector Fluctuations: A Cross-Border Comparative Analysis

Recent research has sought to better understand resource and housing market cycles longitudinally and define clear phases in order to understand interactions between the two over time. This is a necessary step forward in housing market knowledge for this under researched area, particularly in an economically unique context. This paper expands knowledge by undertaking a comparative study of town housing markets in Queensland’s coal mining Bowen Basin and Sweden’s northern municipalities—specifically Gallivare and Kiruna—where a long history of iron ore mining exists. This paper analyses these housing markets using longitudinal data spanning two decades, which includes two resources cycles in two geographically disparate locations. The results indicate that the housing market in Queensland, Australia, is far more volatile than the housing market in the Swedish municipalities. The regional housing market in Sweden’s municipalities tend to be less dependent on resource price and output from mines than their Australian counterparts. Part of the explanation for this is that the Swedish towns examined are less of the traditional mining town known from previous studies, and more a town with mining. Developing and improving understanding of markets over the duration of a cycle is important. Particular value is apparent in the comparison and contrasting of two separate resource regions encompassing resource reliant communities in two different countries. Importantly, the linkage of research regions through resource relationships leads to groundbreaking research which will have practical benefit to multiple economies, housing markets and for policy-makers alike.