Regional economic divergence and house prices: a comparison of Germany and the UK

Abstract

Purpose

Increasing regional wealth disparities have been explained by the role of agglomeration economies and the concentration of skilled mobile human capital. This paper aims to draw out the role of the housing market by considering the differential experience of Germany and the UK.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical analysis is based on the comparison of regional house price trends in Germany and UK-based annual data from 1991 to 2015.

Findings

Regional house price inequality is found to have increased in both countries with the spatial concentration of skilled human capital. However, the main conclusion is that there are differential paths to regional house price inequality explained by the parameters of each country’s housing market.

Originality/value

The research is the first to compare and explain differential regional house price trends across countries.

Citation

Blaseio, B. and Jones, C. (2020), "Regional economic divergence and house prices: a comparison of Germany and the UK", International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 722-735. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-08-2018-0055