The trend in house prices is of importance to governments, financial institutions and households. However, currently no proven reliable indicator of house prices exists. The lack of an accurate house price series is due to two major factors. First convenient and accurate data on house prices are not readily available and data collection from the Land Registry Office is both time consuming and costly. The second factor relates to the problem of changes in the quality of the series through time. This quality problem has two basic aspects. First, the quality of the index may be influenced by shifts in the distribution of sales between different values of homes. The second problem arises from the unique nature of real estate as to its’ location, age, condition, etc. Unlike other indices, there is no standardized unit of housing to which price quotations may, be reduced, thus the quality of the housing sold in each year will be different. In this study, the problems encountered in sampling and constructing a price index for the single family housing stock are identified and analyzed both conceptually and empirically. The conceptual examination involves a review of the literature as well as an analysis of the methodologies employed in the construction of the major housing indicies in use today. The empirical analysis is done through the construction of a price series for the eight rapidly growing cities and municipalities of the Greater Vancouver Regional District for the years 1949 to 1976. The indicies are based upon data obtained from the Land Registry Offices in British Columbia and are designed to be statistically representative of all sales for those areas during the study period. The analysis forms a basis for future research into housing indicies and in particular, provides a reliable benchmark series against which alternative measures of price changes can be tested. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The objective of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of the process by which residential land prices are determined and change over time. A special concern is also shown for the causal relationship between the prices of building lots and the selling prices of new single-detached housing built on those lots. In the introductory chapter, the upward climb over the years in the average price of building lots relative to the increase in new house prices is identified as a matter in need of closer study. The significance of this subject for planning practice is seen to lie in the power of planning authorities to intervene in the operation of property markets, and in the role of planning authorities implied in many proposals for solving the land price problem. In Chapter Two, numerous theoretical analyses and empirical studies of the determination and inter-temporal variation in residential land prices are surveyed. A critical assessment of the literature made in the first part of Chapter Three identifies several shortcomings. A static rather than dynamic approach, the assumption of market equilibrium and perfect competition, inadequate treatment of supply-demand interaction, and a limited behavioral content, characterize most of the works surveyed. A theoretical model is subsequently developed to explain the process by which residential lot prices are determined and change over time. Its fundamental hypothesis is that the level of new house prices and their changes over time are a prime determinant of lot prices and their intertemporal variation, while the profit-maximizing behavior of lot sellers and housebuilders generates the process by which lot prices increase over time. In Chapter Four, an empirical investigation is proposed for testing the theoretical model. Data on residential construction in Canada over the 1951-1977 period and financed under the provisions of the National Housing Act are selected for the investigation. Since the data pertain to a portion rather than the whole of the lot market, the theoretical model is reformulated in light of this and other empirical conditions. The Chapter is concluded with an outline of the statistical procedures to be used in the investigation. The results of the study are presented in Chapter Five. They are found to be generally consistent with the hypotheses of the empirical model, and the postulates of the theoretical model. It is concluded, among other things , that lot sellers and housebuilders behave in the manner proposed by the models, and that lot price increases are determined by house price increases. However, the validity of the model and wider application of the empirical findings are judged to be limited by the characteristics of the data used in the study. The concluding chapter offers several suggestions for future research on land prices and some implications for planning and public policy. The need for an improved economic understanding in urban planning is identified. A potential role is identified for planners in the provision of information in a market where imperfect information is a major source of observed market failure. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

During the last decade we have seen an increase in prices of forest properties in Sweden. The study’s purpose is to identify the factors that are the driving force behind the price increase of forest properties in Sweden during the years of 2018-2021. The data used comes from a Swedish real estate agency named Areal. The study is made with an econometric model that is called multiple linear regression. The results indicate that the factors that influence the price of a forest property is the geographical position, timber storage, average growth and whether there is a residential building on the property or not. The conclusion is that the geographical position of a forest property has the highest economic significance.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Not available / text

Research on house prices and housing markets has traditionally been concerned with the modelling of house price determinants using hedonic regression equations and other methods of data interpretation. While this research has unveiled some useful insights into the relationships between housing supply, housing demand, and selling price, more recent work has focused on the "specialness" of housing as a commodity and the subsequent dismissal of regression techniques that only serve to throw us into a "statistical soup". Recent research is different in two key respects. First, forces other than macro-level variables (eg. interest rates and the availability of finance) and micro-level variables (household income, size, proximity to work) are believed to contribute to the fluctuations in housing prices over time and through space: specifically, more subjective evaluations of locational amenity, identity construction, and community are now considered in the valorisation of housing. Furthermore, newer research also understands that exogenous influences (eg. immigration, foreign investment) now play a key role in the determination of residential value. This research on residential real estate markets in Canada engages in discussions revolving around the latter of the two approaches using both qualitative and quantitative methods. At the inter-urban scale, analysis of house price movements in Canada's largest cities shows the divergence of Toronto and Vancouver from other CMAs, a trend that coincides with the increasing globalisation of both cities over the last 15 years. Further, intra-urban analyses of both Toronto and Vancouver demonstrate differential impacts of globalisation and economic restructuring within each city with particular neighbourhoods being placed on more of a "global" real estate market (eg. gentrified neighbourhoods, residential areas experiencing offshore investment, and areas of settlement for wealthy immigrants). The particular impacts of globalisation are, however, very different in each city and is dependant upon the nature of the global flows that converge there. Moreover, these results are not politically mute; considerable effort has been expended in Vancouver at least to obscure the actual effects of internationalisation on the regional housing market.

Research on house prices and housing markets has traditionally been concerned with the modelling of house price determinants using hedonic regression equations and other methods of data interpretation. While this research has unveiled some useful insights into the relationships between housing supply, housing demand, and selling price, more recent work has focused on the "specialness" of housing as a commodity and the subsequent dismissal of regression techniques that only serve to throw us into a "statistical soup". Recent research is different in two key respects. First, forces other than macro-level variables (eg. interest rates and the availability of finance) and micro-level variables (household income, size, proximity to work) are believed to contribute to the fluctuations in housing prices over time and through space: specifically, more subjective evaluations of locational amenity, identity construction, and community are now considered in the valorisation of housing. Furthermore, newer research also understands that exogenous influences (eg. immigration, foreign investment) now play a key role in the determination of residential value. This research on residential real estate markets in Canada engages in discussions revolving around the latter of the two approaches using both qualitative and quantitative methods. At the inter-urban scale, analysis of house price movements in Canada's largest cities shows the divergence of Toronto and Vancouver from other CMAs, a trend that coincides with the increasing globalisation of both cities over the last 15 years. Further, intra-urban analyses of both Toronto and Vancouver demonstrate differential impacts of globalisation and economic restructuring within each city with particular neighbourhoods being placed on more of a "global" real estate market (eg. gentrified neighbourhoods, residential areas experiencing offshore investment, and areas of settlement for wealthy immigrants). The particular impacts of globalisation are, however, very different in each city and is dependant upon the nature of the global flows that converge there. Moreover, these results are not politically mute; considerable effort has been expended in Vancouver at least to obscure the actual effects of internationalisation on the regional housing market. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

The "unusual" behavior of agricultural land prices is the subject of considerable debate and controversy and is the object of this research. There is little doubt that land prices have been increasing steadily since 1959 and dramatically throughout the decade of the 1970's. However, there is widespread disagreement among economists, appraisers, and other interested parties as to the causes of the dramatic increases in land prices. Net agricultural income is undoubtedly an important factor in the agricultural land market. Yet, land prices have continued to increase in the face of steady and even declining net incomes. Other factors often considered as exerting considerable influences are inflation, pressures from an increasing population, incentives to attain economies of size through ranch enlargement, and capitalization of government farm program "payments" into land values. The objective of this research is to identify the factors that exert significant influence on agricultural grazing land sale prices in two Eastern Oregon counties and to assess the impact of changes in these factors on the selling price of grazing land. A single equation linear regression model is used to identify the factors that have a significant impact on the price of grazing land. The variables determined to be positively correlated to the price of grazing land are the productivity of the land, the price of feeder cattle, inflation, and the assessed value of real property included in the land sales. The price of hay is negatively correlated with the price of grazing land. The inclusion of public land (USFS and BLM) grazing privileges in the sale was found to have no significant effect on the price of grazing land. In addition, purchases for the purpose of ranch enlargement are occurring at lower prices than purchases for ranch establishment. The major limitations of this study are the restrictions placed on the sales that are analyzed and the problem of standardizing a measure of land productivity. The first limitation is defensible given the stated objectives of the study and the need to limit the analysis to a roughly homogeneous class of land sales. The latter limitation prohibits generalization of the results to other areas without appropriate standardization of the measure of land productivity. / Graduation date: 1979

Hedonic pricing (HP) is an economic technique for placing monetary values upon costs or benefits which do not have market prices. This thesis applies the HP method to the valuation of road transport and visual disamenity impacts, as reflected in variations within property prices. In order to carry out such a study one has to determine not only the magnitude of the environmental impact at each property, but also structural, neighbourhood and accessibility variables characterising each property. These have to be controlled for before the portion of the property price attributable to the environmental variable can be observed. In the past all these variables have been calculated using labour intensive techniques such as house to house surveys. These led to high study costs and limited the scope of such research. This thesis circumvents these problems through the use of large scale digital data and a Geographical Information System (GIS). This study demonstrates how a GIS can significantly improve a HP study through the calculation of a wider range of more sophisticated variables. However the calculation of such a large number of variables causes difficulties when these data are modelled. This study illustrates how these problems can be overcome through a combination of Principal Components Analysis and a Multiple Regression. The final model had a higher degree of explanation and a lower incidence of collinearity than in previous research vindicating the use of GIS. Prices and values for a range of road transport and visual disamenity impacts are presented. The main limitations upon the research was the time and effort required to obtain data and to convert them into a GIS format. This took half of the research time. Various developments that might improve this situation in the future are presented, along with ways in which the study could be extended.