There is a lack of international comparative housing studies, possibly because it requires thorough knowledge of the real estate market in question. This book brings together scholars with knowledge of different national markets in order to facilitate comparisons for real estate and housing and urban studies scholars and practitioners. By studying international markets using new data as well as new analysis of existing data, the chapters in this book present insights into the institutional constraints on national housing markets. Specifically, the contributors seek to examine the role of institutional factors and their influence on transaction costs in these markets. Exhibiting a diverse range of geographical, legal, and economic perspectives, the countries are grouped together based on legal institutional similarities, and each group includes an introduction and a conclusion highlighting similarities and differences from the institutional perspective.

The book is divided into 3 parts:

Part I sets the theoretical context and the reasons for writing a book focusing on national housing markets.

Part II presents national markets from the perspective of the transaction process and covers Europe, North and South America, East Asia, the Pacific, and Africa.

Part III contains conclusions with a critical discussion on how to compare national housing markets and a reflection on future directions of housing markets in an increasingly competitive international environment.

The Routledge Companion to International Housing Markets is essential reading for academics and professionals in housing studies, real estate, economics, and urban studies.

This article applies Hirschmans’ concepts exit, voice and loyalty to a Swedish case of housing renovation in an estate with comparatively strong tenants. Renovations can be considered as shocks or critical junctures to an existing tenant-landlord relation, and therefore expose power relations on the housing market. Renovation processes are complex both technically and socially, and our study indicates that the exit, voice and loyalty framework is a useful tool for analysing such processes. In the case studied, tenants were not able to affect the renovation process per se, but tenant voice did affect the outcome in other respects. We argue that this strong tenant group represents an extreme ‘most likely’ case, making it possible to test the limits of tenant influence.

This article applies Hirschman's model of exit, voice and loyalty to a Swedish case of housing renovation in a building with comparatively well-off tenants. Hirschman's framework is particularly well suited for understanding the housing market with its heterogeneity and high transaction and attachment costs, and accordingly strong loyalty and voice. Our study indicates that the exit-voice-loyalty framework is a useful tool for analysing renovation processes, since these trigger both voice and exit behaviour. We argue that renovations can be considered as critical junctures to an existing tenant-landlord relation, thereby exposing power relations on the housing market. In the case studied, tenants were not able to affect the scope of the renovation directly, but tenant voice did affect the process as well as the outcome in other respects. The capable tenant group makes this a "most likely case" for testing the limits of tenant influence in housing renovation processes.

A growing research literature is focusing on how effects from increased accessibility may differ according to socio-economic aspects of neighbourhoods and households. This has raised concerns of whether areas with high accessibility may became unaffordable for low-income households, who, at the same time, may depend on public transport accessibility more than average households. We use difference-in-difference estimates of hedonic price models to study the distribution of effects around the new stations provided by a railway tunnel in Malmo center dot, Sweden. The study finds that the lower-price segments are the most affected by the improved accessibility, which becomes clearer when different control groups are used for different market segments. Accessibility is therefore interpreted as highly important for households in the lower-price segments. From a housing accessibility perspective, this is described as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the owners of the apartments in these neighbourhoods, who benefit from the price increase, are typically low-income households. On the other hand, low-income households who are not owners may find the area prohibitively expensive due to price increases. Tenure of the catchment area is thus an important factor in understanding the distributional effects of accessibility. Integrating transport and housing-related planning, and specifically addressing the issue of affordability in early assessments, are therefore recommended.

The chapter aims to explore the size and evolution of spatial inequality in Croatia and Serbia with emphasis on labour market developments. The analysis focuses on municipalities (LAU 2 level) in both countries to explore patterns of change in the labour market. We estimate spatial inequality based on the distribution of population, employment, unemployment rates, and wages. We find that regions with major cities in both countries are leading in the recovery from the recent recession, while rural areas are lagging behind. Further, there is a durable trend of both population and job concentration in the capital city area, or in urban areas generally.

Geographical mobility is often considered fundamental to a well-functioning labour market, and thus to the economy as a whole. Typically, geographical mobility can be achieved either through commuting or through migration. Commuting can be considered important for households to have access to job market opportunities and for business to access labour, skills and competencies. Previous research has found commuting patterns to differ between men and women, for example, in the sense that women travel shorter distances and rely more on public transport. However, we also know that factors such as higher education can influence an individual’s decision to commute, possibly because of specialization and a higher salary. As women’s education level approaches, or surpasses, that of men’s, one would expect to see more similarities between the travel behaviour of the two genders. In this study, we analyse gender patterns of commuting in Norway, Serbia and Sweden. We specifically address the issue of gender gap in commuting. Findings show that though there are signs of convergence, there are large regional variations. The gender gap is decreasing primarily in the more urban regions, while it is decreasing less, and even increasing, given the various levels of aggregation, in the more rural areas.

Sofielund är ett område i södra delen av centrala Malmö som byggnadsmässigt karakteriseras av en blandning av olika typer av byggnader från olika tidsepoker. Det är ett område med mycket blandad bebyggelse som idag ligger nära Möllevången, ett område som är känt för restauranger, kulturverksamhet och framtill slutet av 1990-talet även för tillgången till billiga bostäder. Sofielund har även blivit känt för ett rikt kulturliv och en pittoresk gatubild, men också för mindre smickrande saker som en besvärande kriminalitet, som bl a inkluderar en omfattande droghandel och annan kriminalitet, samt vad som kallats slumbostäder. Området omfattar alla typer av boendeformer: småhus, bostadsrätter och hyreslägenheter. Det eftersatta fastighetsunderhållet har uppmärksammats under de senaste åren. Något som utmärker Sofielund är det stora antal olika fastighetsägare som finns representerade. Det innebär att för att genomföra förändringar finns många olika parter inblandade, vilket kan göra olika insatser mer komplicerade. Föreningen Fastighetsägare BID Sofielund konstituerades i september 2014 på gemensamt initiativ från Malmö stad och Fastighetsägarna Syd. Syftet är att fastighetsägarna i området på ett samordnat sätt ska arbeta med att i vid mening och utifrån flera perspektiv utveckla och förbättra Norra och Södra Sofielund och Sofielunds industriområde. Denna studie syftar till att identifiera och diskutera vad BID betyder i en Malmökontext, vad Fastighetsägare BID Sofielund ska fokusera på och diskutera hur BID:en bör agera för att uppnå de uppsatta målen på ett framgångsrikt sätt. Utifrån det material som samlats in identifierar författarna kritiska frågor för fastighetsägare och för områdets fastighetsunderhåll i stort.

Property prices are known to be higher in places with high accessibility, such as in proximity to train stations and especially to commuter rail, than in places without this access. This study provides a better understanding of how regional accessibility, through the structure of railway networks, can influence local agglomeration economies by providing accessibility to large labor markets. Previous literature has shown a positive impact of proximity to railway stations on housing prices, and our study adds to the literature by analyzing the impact of network structure. We argue that public transport systems can support the benefits of city networks in line with Alonso’s concept of borrowed sizes (1973). Using network theory to measure accessibility provided by the network, we show that stations that provide accessibility to large labor markets across the region are perceived as more attractive by households. Cities in proximity to other cities are strengthened through their public transport links, which allow agglomeration benefits to be exploited by residents.

This report analyses the impact of accessibility to railway stations on single family house prices in the Västra Götaland region. The report is divided into two parts, of which the first part contains an overview of how the housing prices in the region have developed between 2002 to 2016. In order to analyse which factors can explain the price development, a hedonic price model is applied to a cross-section of the data from 2015. The second part consists of case studies of two selected areas in the Västra Götaland region, including more of descriptive of the areas and how prices have developed. The first case study focuses on four towns in the province of Dalsland. Two of the towns have access to rail, whereas the other two only have access to bus as public transport. The second case study consists of the area in Göta älvdalen where new railway stations opened in 2012. The focus in the case studies is the area closest to the stations (within 10 minutes biking range). The results indicate that proximity to railway stations has a positive impact on single-family houses in the Västra Götaland region. The number of departures at the nearest stations also influences the prices. However, the positive effects are reduced for houses that are situated very close to the station and are exposed to noise. The results from the hedonic price model are in line with previous research. In the case studies, results indicate that the areas with access to railway have had a stronger development of prices. In Dalsland, the two villages with access to railway have had a more rapid price development than comparable villages that lack railway access. However, given the rather limited dataset it is not possible to exclude the possibility that these changes may be caused by other factors. For example, the train line is located along the Väner lake, and proximity to sea or lakes tend to have a positive effect on property prices. In the Göta älvdalen area, price development in the villages with new railway station has been strong and the effect is larger for the villages closer to Gothenburg. Some statistically significant changes can be observed. Summarizing in bullet points: • Accessibility to train stations has positive impacts on prices for single family houses in the region • The number of departures from the nearest station has a positive impact on real estate prices • Results indicate a solid price development over time in towns with a train station. • The positive effects are reduced for houses very close to the station.

Using single-family home transactions and commuter rail data from 2014, we estimate hedonic price models using two-stage spatial quantile regression to capture variations across price segments. The results are significant and robust across different model specifications and across the different price segments, but the price effect of proximity to a commuter train station is strongest in lower price segments of the housing market. These price segment effects are also valid for proximity to highways, as well as for several other property attributes. Results also reveal that the largest of the three regional labour markets in our study has a greater effect on prices. Furthermore, the study introduces property-specific neighbourhood data from raster data, showing that population density has a negative impact on property prices at the neighbourhood level while population size has a positive impact at the municipal level.

Sweden's strategy to manage the spread of Covid-19 has not included any form of lockdown, in contrast to the approaches adopted by most other countries. Instead, the strategy has been largely based on strong recommendations for society. Even though Sweden has not had any form of lockdown, the Covid-19 pandemic has during a relatively short period of time brought changes for society, significantly disrupting everyday life. The pandemic poses both challenges and opportunities for sustainable future transport, not least public transport provision, supply and use. The purpose of this study is to investigate how changes for society have translated into changes for mobility as an element of everyday life during the early stages of a pandemic. This study draws on a map-based online survey (public participatory GIS) which was purposefully designed to allow people to contribute with their experiences in order to capture how the current situation has affected several different facets of people's everyday life. Results suggest that effects on mobility, such as the possibility to telework, affect different groups differently and may exacerbate existing differences in terms of gender, geography and mobility. In order to mitigate negative effects, transport policy needs to be tailored in order to take these heterogeneities into account. Both spatio-temporal adjustment and modal adjustment were dominant themes for most activities, although the dominance of these themes varied among the activities. Our findings give an indication of both the short and long-term impacts on everyday mobility in the Swedish context, for groups of inhabitants in the city of Malmö. Through deepening our understanding of the processes at play, we suggest eight possible policy responses that can be carefully tailored, both in the interim and into the future.

Fastigheter upplevs inte som den hetaste av branscher. Trots det ibland svala intresset är fastighetsbranschen ändå en viktig faktor i samhället: vi ska alla ha någonstans att bo och stora värden finns placerade i tomter och byggnader. Det är också ett internationellt etablerat forskningsfält. Det finns alltså all anledning att branschen får den uppmärksamhet den förtjänar. Det är utgångspunkten för denna antologi skriven av forskare vid Enheten för fastighetsvetenskap vid Urbana studier. Fastighetsvetenskap är ett tvärvetenskapligt ämne: ekonomi, juridik, teknik, liksom beteende- och samhällsvetenskap finns representerade. I denna antologi vill vi lyfta fram ämnets bredd utifrån fyra teman. En marknad i förändring speglar såväl politiska som ekonomiska drivkrafter, medan Ökat fokus på miljö visar hur miljöaspekter blir alltmer centrala för fastighetsmarknadens utveckling. Temat Företagen fokuserar på företagen utifrån strategiska perspektiv såväl som genusperspektiv. Internationell utblick får avsluta som en påminnelse om att mycket av det som sker på den svenska marknaden är en del av en global ekonomi.

Seen as one explanation for the election of Trump, Brexit and the surge of a right-wing movement across Europe, spatial inequality has become an increasingly relevant topic. Offering in-depth perspectives on factors such as local labour markets, housing and mobility, this book investigates centralization tendencies in Scandinavia and South East Europe that help shape regional development and act as a catalyst to creating regional inequalities. Joining scholars from four countries, this book provides a micro-examination of the development of regional inequalities in four geographically peripheral countries which represent different ends of the income spectrum, contain both EU and non-EU members and reflect differing levels of economic development. Divided into three sub-themes, the sections in turn discuss the topics of spatial divergence and labour market development, housing and institutional perspectives, and finally mobility, migration and commuting.

Housing renovation is a common concern to owners, tenants and to society at large. In addition to the high economic costs, the implementation of housing renovation usually have a long-term impact on the society and the built environment. This is a theoretical paper that develops a system model for understanding sustainable housing renovation as a system phenomenon which has multiple sustainability goals, complicated dynamic processes, diverse actors, and a sophisticated institutional environment. It identifies the key challenges of a sustainable housing renovation system, namely the conflicting sustainability goals and the conflicting stakeholder interests. To address these two challenges, the paper suggests an innovation approach in which the process of innovation (linear versus organic) and the typology of innovation (product versus process and business versus social) toward sustainable housing renovation are discussed.

Renovations of the housing rental stock have become a political concern since they have been claimed to drive gentrification and affect tenants' everyday lives as well as long-term housing conditions. Furthermore, new actors have entered the market, partly as a result of high supply on the international capital markets creating a flow of capital into market segments. This has led to a critique of private equity in the housing sector, and raised the question of the extent to which ownership of the rental stock matters for housing affordability. Yet there seems to be little systematic research on this topic. This study uses a unique dataset covering the entire rental housing stock in Sweden to address whether there are differences in renovation investments between different ownership groups. The purpose of this article is to increase understanding of how ownership affects renovation processes, and specifically to analyse to what extent, and how, private and public actors differ in renovation and rent setting decisions. Our results demonstrate that public housing companies raised rents less and renovated more, particularly in the lower-income segments of the multi-family building stock between 2014 and 2020.

PurposeReal estate is a capital-intensive industry for which the asset values tend to be highly volatile and uncertain. Transaction costs in the industry are therefore high, and transparency for investors may be low. The need to signal reliable estimates of property assets, in the communication to external stakeholders, can therefore be expected to be of extra importance in this sector. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how real estate firms use big four auditors to signal quality.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use Swedish firm level data containing all limited liability real estate companies in the country to determine the determinants of big four auditors. The data set consists of 34,306 observations and is analyzed through logit regressions.FindingsThe results show that big four companies are primarily contracted by large and mature companies, rather than new firms or firms with volatile financial records, although the latter could be expected to have a large need to signal quality. The authors also find that firms listed on the stock market and firms targeting public use real estate are more inclined to use big four companies.Originality/valueReal estate is a capital-intensive industry for which the asset values tend to be highly volatile and uncertain. Transaction costs in the industry are therefore high, and transparency for investors may be low. The need to signal reliable estimates of property assets, in the communication to external stakeholders, can therefore be expected to be of extra importance in this sector. No prior study of this area has been detected.

Purpose - The objective of the research is to investigate the anchor effect in appraisal of residential property based on a quantitative survey among Swedish students at a program for real estate brokerage.Prior research has identified various factors that influence price perceptions, including factors that affect assessments of the perceived value of products to consumers and, relatedly, the reference prices consumers use to evaluate the attractiveness of given prices (e.g., Winer 1986). Although the determinants of reservation prices have been extensively studied, there has been much less research regarding the manner in which consumers decide on the lowest price they are willing to accept for a product (for exceptions, see, e.g., Carmon and Ariely 2000; Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler 1990). The value appraised is individual and may depend on different parameters such as tacit knowledge and personal taste. Tversky and Kahneman's (1974) seminal work on anchor effects reveal that an external number, referred to as anchors, influence the value people will estimate a given object. Within real estate valuation Northcraft and Neale (1987) applied the same idea on real estate, conducting a study in which both students and real estate agents were to value the same house while changing the conditions regarding asking price for the house. Although the asking price should not affect the valuation of the market value, the study concluded that both real estate agents and students were positively affected by the asking price.Design/methodology /approach - An experiment with students was conducted where they were to value two different properties. The experiment tasks were design to be both representative of real valuation situation and to be relevant for the students in their course as a kind of rehearsal. They were not informed of the experiment's manipulative design nor the research objectives. A total of 53 students, all in their last semester in the real estate broker education within the course of Real estate valuation, participated in the experiment and were divided into group A and B. In addition one more group was included. This group C consists of 17 participants who all are employed as assistant at broker firms and undertaking in service-training in order to become licensed real estate brokers. This group was included to be used as a control group since they can be considered as semi-professionals or at least to have practical pre-knowledge.