Using a natural experiment in Singapore, we examine the economic impact of temporarily restricting owners’ rights to transfer their property. Executive condominiums (ECs), introduced to provide affordable housing for middle-class citizens, are subject to restrictions on transferability in the first 10 years, unlike private condominiums (PCs). As per the option theory, EC buyers have the forward-start American put option with the right to sell their properties only after the contract date. Among transacted units matched by location, completion and transaction dates, and complex- and unit-level characteristics, we find that prices of new ECs are about 21 percent lower than those of PCs. After the 10th year, when property rights restrictions are completely removed, the price gap between ECs and PCs narrows to about 3 percent. These results suggest that property rights restrictions and illiquidity generated by the forward-start American put option for 10 years results in an 18 percent discount.

中文翻译：

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产权限制和房价

通过在新加坡进行的自然实验，我们研究了暂时限制所有者转让其财产的权利的经济影响。旨在为中产阶级公民提供负担得起的住房的行政公寓（EC）与私人公寓（PC）不同，在开始的10年内受到可转让性的限制。根据期权理论，EC买家拥有前瞻性美国看跌期权，其权利仅在合同签订后才出售其财产。在按位置，完工和交易日期以及复杂和单位级别特征匹配的交易单位中，我们发现新EC的价格比PC的价格低约21％。第10年后，完全取消了产权限制，EC和PC之间的价格差距缩小到大约3％。