Benefits of Real Estate Policies

Felix N. Hammond and Yaw Adarkwah Antwi

Chapter 8 in Economic Analysis of Sub-Saharan Africa Real Estate Policies, 2010, pp 154-174 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract If Africa wishes to prosper, it must draw insights from how the West has managed to attain and retain prosperity. There is evidence of a connection between property market efficiency and rising prosperity in the West. Earlier economists like Adam Smith (1776) and George (1912) have long detected a positive correlation between development and the performance of the property market. In comparatively recent times also, Alonso (1960), Muth (1985), Mills (1972), Ball et al. (1998), Deininger (2003) and Dam (2006) have all contributed profoundly to our understanding of the importance of landed properties to the economic development processes in both rich and poor countries. It is no wonder that all rich countries are host to active and efficient property markets. It is estimated, for example, that land and buildings ‘account for between half and three-quarters of the wealth in most economies’ (World Bank, 2007). Further, a developed economy like the UK derives as much as 6 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from its commercial property sector alone (BPF, 2006). A possible inference from this is that developed economies are rich to a degree because their property markets are well functioning. There is thus little doubt that improving the performance of property markets in the developing world is an effective and strategic means of achieving economic prosperity.

Keywords: Policy Type; Land Price; Land Market; Property Market; Land Prex (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-27499-0_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230274990

DOI: 10.1057/9780230274990_8

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().