Questioning the concept of market failure in housing: the case of Housing Market Renewal in Liverpool

Chris Couch, Alex Lord and Matthew Cocks

International Journal of Housing Policy, 2015, vol. 15, issue 4, 461-490

Abstract: The case for intervention in housing markets often turns on the concept of market failure. However, diagnosing the characteristics of market failure is problematised by the fact that transactions in housing are so complex. From the specific geographies of neighbourhoods and hedonic characteristics of individual properties to national macro-economic variables and the effects of globalised financial services, the factors affecting local prices are legion. Around the millennium concern about low demand in some urban housing markets in Britain led to a Government policy known as Housing Market Renewal. This sought to stabilise market conditions, particularly through supply-side interventions. Building upon the work of Nevin and others, and through a detailed quantitative study of the housing market in Liverpool (UK) this paper debates the concept of market failure and explores both the effectiveness of attempts to tackle market failure through the decade after 2000 and the impact of the post-2007 economic crisis on these same areas. The paper concludes that, despite substantial state intervention, many of the neighbourhoods that were vulnerable to market failure a decade ago remain equally so today.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1080/14616718.2015.1076629

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