Abstract

Housing prices in Australia have demonstrated strong growth in recent decades, and many argue housing supply is not keeping up with the demand. The Australian government purports to increase the private construction of new houses and availability of rental housing primarily through taxation offsets. However, inflated house prices are also at least partially explained by housing supply shortage. This work studies Australian residential property investors to understand their characteristics and role in contributing to the supply of rental housing. Using rich proprietary loan-level data on over 1.1 million mortgage applications during a period of stable policy and house price appreciation, we study the determining factors for accessing finance for the purpose of residential investment as opposed to owner-occupation. Our findings use historical data to present new evidence of the increasingly non-metropolitan location choice for real estate investment properties. This is a potential explanation for the shortage of suitable housing in metropolitan regions but may contribute to regional development.

摘要

近几十年来，澳大利亚的房价表现出强劲增长，许多人认为住房供应跟不上需求。澳大利亚政府声称主要通过税收抵免来增加私人新房建设和租赁住房的供应。然而，房价上涨至少部分是由住房供应短缺造成的。这项工作研究了澳大利亚住宅房地产投资者，以了解他们的特点以及在促进租赁住房供应方面的作用。我们利用政策稳定和房价升值期间超过 110 万份抵押贷款申请的丰富自有贷款水平数据，研究了以住宅投资而非自住为目的获得融资的决定因素。我们的研究结果利用历史数据提供了房地产投资物业越来越多地选择非大都市地点的新证据。这是大都市地区合适住房短缺的一个潜在解释，但可能有助于区域发展。