Valuation of Long-Term Property Rights under Political Uncertainty / Zhiguo He, Maggie Rong Hu, Zhenping Wang, Vincent Yao.

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He, Zhiguo

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Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w27665.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

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Abstract: We empirically analyze the pricing of political uncertainty in long-term property rights, guided by a theoretical model of housing assets subject to contract extension in the remote future. To identify exposure to political uncertainty, we exploit a unique variation around land lease extension protection beyond 2047 in Hong Kong's housing market due to the historical arrangements under the "One Country, Two Systems" design. A reduced-form approach reveals that relative to properties that have been promised an extension protection, those with legally unprotected leases granted by the current Hong Kong government are sold at a substantial discount of around 8%. Similar contracts issued during the colonial era suffer an additional discount of about 8% due to their reneging risk. Our parsimonious model matches well these empirical discounts across long-term lease horizons, and the estimated structural parameters imply that to extend their leases homeowners expect about an additional 20% ground rent after 2047. The discount is higher when people's confidence declines and where residents feel more uncertain of the city's future, but lower when the transaction involves a mainland buyer and a local seller.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w27665 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

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August 2020.

We empirically analyze the pricing of political uncertainty in long-term property rights, guided by a theoretical model of housing assets subject to contract extension in the remote future. To identify exposure to political uncertainty, we exploit a unique variation around land lease extension protection beyond 2047 in Hong Kong's housing market due to the historical arrangements under the "One Country, Two Systems" design. A reduced-form approach reveals that relative to properties that have been promised an extension protection, those with legally unprotected leases granted by the current Hong Kong government are sold at a substantial discount of around 8%. Similar contracts issued during the colonial era suffer an additional discount of about 8% due to their reneging risk. Our parsimonious model matches well these empirical discounts across long-term lease horizons, and the estimated structural parameters imply that to extend their leases homeowners expect about an additional 20% ground rent after 2047. The discount is higher when people's confidence declines and where residents feel more uncertain of the city's future, but lower when the transaction involves a mainland buyer and a local seller.