The Private Housing Market Cyclical Price Dynamics

Abstract

Two types of heterogeneous investors (momentum and disposition) form a unique difference model to interpret housing price dynamics. Three parameters are crucial: auto-correlation, the rate of mean reversion and the contemporaneous adjustment towards long-term equilibrium price. For Singapore, we examine the dynamic structures that oscillate and/or diverge from equilibrium. Disposition investors predominate although the interaction between momentum and disposition investors acts as a key determinant of private housing price dynamics for a given time in a specific market. Key implication is that Singapore’s private housing market is low risk, offering stable returns owing to virtually no divergence even in the speculative 1990s. The best way to invest is to consider the momentum strategy and avoid the herd behavior for profit sustainability. For policy-makers, the Singapore private housing market is over-damped in the long run. Predominating disposition investors contribute to the market mechanism, which automatically adjusts private housing market prices. It is imperative to relax government intervention in Singapore’s private housing market to enhance its efficiency.