BIG IDEA | ‘The part of housing prices caused by gender-ratio imbalance is not going to go away in the medium term. But the government has ways to create volatility in the housing market.’
Fund Manager: ‘Given the gender imbalance is not going to be corrected anytime soon, does that mean that the housing prices will stay firm for the intermediate term?
Shang-Jin Wei: ‘The part of housing prices caused by gender-ratio imbalance is not going to go away in the medium term.’
- ‘Because the need for households to compete on relative saving and relative wealth is not going to go away in the medium term.’
‘But the government has ways to create volatility in the housing market.’
- ‘The government can make it harder for developers to develop supplies, or it can artificially increase demand.’
‘For example, a central government proposal linked to the migrant issue is for local governments to develop more social housing projects.’
- ‘The goal is of course to create more affordable housing for low income families.
- ‘But the other goal is to create demand for cement, furniture, electronic appliances and so on to offset declining demand in the housing sector.’