The Relationship between Rents and Prices of Owner-Occupied Housing in Taiwan

Abstract

This article analyzes the changes of equilibrium rent and equilibrium price of owner-occupied housing in Taiwan, and also computes the rent multiplier and its trend in the past ten years in Taiwan to show how the housing con-sumption and housing investment change. A hedonic rent equation and a hedonic housing price equation are built first. Then, we apply the \"Housing Survey Report\" data from 1979 to 1989, and employ ordinary-least squares method to estimate the two equations. Using estimated coefficients of the two equations, we compute the market rents for owner-occupied housing and the market prices for rental housing. Finally, the rent multipliers are calculated from the market rents and market prices. The article finds that (1) changes of housing prices in Taipei lead to price changes in Kaoshung, and the latter leads Taiwan province; (2) changes of rent are much smaller than the changes of housing price; and (3) housing prices in Taiwan increased drastically. We also find: (1) at the peak of the housing market cycle, the rent multiplier is extremely high; (2) the rent multiplier drops in the year after the peak year because the rent catches up; (3) the rent multiplier in Taipei is greater than that of Kaoshung, and the multiplier in Kaoshung is greater than that of Taiwan province; and (4) overall, the rent multiplier in Taiwan is much greater than that of the United States.