No abstract

Using recently developed statistical methods for testing and dating exhuberant behavior in asset prices we document evidence of episodic bubbles in the New Zealand property market over the past two decades. The results show clear evidence of a broad-based New Zealand housing bubble that began in 2003 and collapsed over mid 2007 to early 2008 with the onset of the worldwide recession and the …nancial crisis. New methods of analyzing market contagion are also developed and are used to examine spillovers from the Auckland property market to the other metropolitan centres. Evidence from the latest data reveals that the greater Auckland metropolitan area is currently experiencing a new property bubble that began in 2013. But there is no evidence yet of any contagion e¤ect of this bubble on the other centres, in contrast to the earlier bubble over 2003-2008 for which there is evidence of transmission of the housing bubble from Auckland to the other centres. One of our primary conclusions is that the expensive nature of New Zealand real estate relative to potential earnings in rents is partly due to the sustained market exuberance that produced the broad based bubble in house prices during the last decade and that has continued through the most recent bubble experienced in the Auckland region since 2013.

Using recently developed model selection procedures, we determine that exchange rate returns are driven by a two‐factor model. We identify them as a dollar factor and a euro factor. Exchange rates are thus driven by global, U.S., and euro‐zone stochastic discount factors. The identified factors can also be given a risk‐based interpretation. Identification motivates multilateral models for bilateral exchange rates. Out‐of‐sample forecast accuracy of empirically identified multilateral models dominates the random walk and a bilateral purchasing power parity fundamentals prediction model. Twenty‐four‐month‐ahead forecast accuracy of the multilateral model dominates those of a principal components forecasting model.

Using recently developed statistical methods for testing and dating exhuberant behavior in asset prices we document evidence of episodic bubbles in the New Zealand property market over the past two decades. The results show clear evidence of a broad-based New Zealand housing bubble that began in 2003 and collapsed over mid 2007 to early 2008 with the onset of the worldwide recession and the …nancial crisis. New methods of analyzing market contagion are also developed and are used to examine spillovers from the Auckland property market to the other metropolitan centres. Evidence from the latest data reveals that the greater Auckland metropolitan area is currently experiencing a new property bubble that began in 2013. But there is no evidence yet of any contagion e¤ect of this bubble on the other centres, in contrast to the earlier bubble over 2003-2008 for which there is evidence of transmission of the housing bubble from Auckland to the other centres. One of our primary conclusions is that the expensive nature of New Zealand real estate relative to potential earnings in rents is partly due to the sustained market exuberance that produced the broad based bubble in house prices during the last decade and that has continued through the most recent bubble experienced in the Auckland region since 2013.

We study the short-run effects of a large-scale upzoning on house prices and redevelopment premiums in Auckland, New Zealand. Upzoning significantly increases the redevelopment premium but the overall effect on house prices depends on the economic potential for site redevelopment, with underdeveloped properties appreciating relative to intensively developed properties. Notably, intensively developed properties decrease in value relative to similar dwellings that were not upzoned, showing that the large-scale upzoning had an immediate depreciative effect on pre-existing intensive housing. Our results show that the economic potential for site redevelopment is fundamental to understanding the impact of changes in land use regulations on property values.