Postscript

Abstract

This book has attempted to demonstrate how the application of microeconomic methods of analysis can aid our understanding of the way in which the housing market operates. It has done so by indicating how particular models of market behaviour can be used to represent many of the special features of this market, and by showing how the demand for housing and the conditions under which it is supplied can be analysed. Hence, a capital stock adjustment model has been shown to be one way of representing a market in which there is a large existing stock of the commodity — resulting from its extreme durability — and substantial time lags in the response of new construction to changes in demand. Similarly, an approach based upon the identification of specific housing attributes has been shown to be a suitable method for dealing with the heterogeneity of housing and its role in determining relative prices, while the linkages between individual dwellings and sub-markets have been highlighted by.a matrix formulation. On the subject of demand analysis, an attempt has been made to indicate how applied research has been carried out in this area, and to point to some of the major methodological problems that have been encountered and some of the results obtained. A similar emphasis upon applied research has been adopted in dealing with the construction industry where information on its organisation and performance has been assembled.