Housing affordability during the urban transition in Spain

Juan Carmona (), Markus Lampe and Joan Rosés

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: During the decades prior to the Civil War, Spain experienced a rapid process of urbanization, which was accompanied by the demographic transition and sizeable rural–urban migrations. This article investigates how urban housing markets reacted to these far-reaching changes, which increased demand for dwellings. To this end, this study employs a new hedonic index of real housing prices and constructs a cross-regional panel dataset of rents and housing price fundamentals. This new evidence indicates that rents were not a significant financial burden on low-income families and, hence, housing was affordable for the working classes. The article also shows that families’ access to new homes was facilitated by a sizeable growth in the housing supply. Substantial investments in urban infrastructure and the institutional framework enabled the construction of new homes at affordable prices. Our results suggest that housing problems were not as pervasive during the urban transition as the literature often seems to claim.

JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2017-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Economic History Review, 1, May, 2017, 70(2), pp. 632 - 658. ISSN: 0013-0117

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/68886/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Housing affordability during the urban transition in Spain (2017)
Working Paper: Housing affordability during the urban transition in Spain (2014)
Working Paper: Housing affordability during the urban transition in Spain (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:68886

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