Professor Won the Emerald Literati Award for the Best Paper Published in the Journal of Property Investment & Finance

Dr. Petros Sivitanides, Associate Professor and Head of the Real Estate Department at Neapolis University in Cyprus has won the Emerald Literati Award for the best paper that was published in the Journal of Property Investment & Finance in 2018. According to the Emerald Literati Award editorial team Dr. Sivitanides’ article ‘Macroeconomic drivers of London house prices’ was “one of the most exceptional pieces of work the team has seen throughout 2018”.

The paper attempts to validate and quantify the effect of key macroeconomic drivers on London house prices using annual data over the period 1983–2016. Within this context, the author estimates advanced econometric models, which have been widely used in the empirical literature in modelling the slow adjustments of house prices to demand and supply shocks.

The paper provides robust empirical evidence regarding the strong long-term effect of key macroeconomic variables, such as UK GDP, London population and housing completions on London house prices. A key finding of the study relevant to the debate on the causes of the housing affordability crisis in the Greater London area is the importance of user demand in driving house prices increases, a factor that has been mostly downplayed by several previous studies that focused on the role of investor demand.

The findings of the paper have important practical and policy implications as they indicate that any reduction of immigration and economic growth in the UK due to Brexit will have a limiting effect on house price increases in the Greater London area. The results also confirm that increases in homebuilding activity in the Greater London area will undoubtedly help limit house price inflation.

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