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The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the study aims to test whether expectations are adaptive in the Auckland housing market. The second purpose is to examine the interplay between expectations and Auckland housing prices.

In this study, two vector error correction models (VECM) are built: one VECM includes survey-based expectations and another one encompasses model-based expectations with the assumption that property investors’ expectations are adaptive. The paper goes on by comparing and examining the results of Granger causality tests and impulse response analyses.

The findings reveal that Auckland property buyers’ expectations are adaptive. In addition, this study provides some evidence of a feedback cycle between Auckland housing prices and expectations.

This study posits that Auckland property buyers’ expectations in the next 12 months are based on three-year price movements with more emphasis being placed on recent price history. This assumption may not be an accurate reflection of true expectations.

This paper helps policymakers to deepen their understanding of Auckland property buyers by showing that their expectations form through the extrapolation of the past price trend.

The study possibly marks the first attempt to test and compare the relationship between housing prices and two forms of expectations: survey-based and model-based. Additionally, this study is probably the first one that empirically examines whether there is a feedback cycle between expectations and property prices in the Auckland housing market.

This paper aims to examine the housing experiences of Fijian migrants in Auckland, New Zealand, in response to recent calls for greater attention to be given to the housing experiences of a wider range of migrant groups. The paper seeks to extend the understanding of the housing experiences of a migrant group that have the economic and social resources that are likely to see them achieve housing outcomes beyond the usual “niche” and limited segments of the housing market usually available to migrants.

This paper used a questionnaire survey designed to uncover the housing experiences and levels of satisfaction of Fijian migrants living in Auckland. Developing on the works of literature that have addressed ethnic residential segregation and migrant housing outcomes, this paper addresses the housing experiences of a well-established migrant community that possesses significant human capital (skills, education, English language proficiency) but occupies a hybrid cultural identity.

The majority of the 84 respondents had attained homeownership. Homeownership was prized for conveying a sense of “independence” and was aligned with notions of Fijian Indian culture. Both homeowners and renters expressed high levels of satisfaction with the locational attributes of their homes. While the majority of renters aspired to homeownership, a lack of affordable housing was noted. Homeowners recognised that they had benefitted from accessing homeownership when house prices were more affordable and believed that current and future migrants would struggle to buy a house in the Auckland housing market.

In the absence of a sampling frame, this research employed a purposive sampling technique that distributed questionnaires among Fijian migrant community groups and ethnic businesses. As the first study of its kind into the housing experiences of Fijian migrants in Auckland, the sample size (84 respondents) and geographical distribution of respondents was deemed sufficient to offer insights into the community’s housing experiences. The findings of this research could be used to develop a larger-scale analysis of the housing experiences of Fijian migrants in Auckland.

While considerable attention has been given to documenting the locational distribution of migrants in Auckland, this is the first study to examine the housing experiences of Fijian migrants. The paper adds to the understandings of the variety of migrant housing outcomes by focussing on the experiences of a well-established migrant group that possesses significant human capital and occupies a distinct ethnic position within Pacific migration flows.

The purpose of this paper is to examine housing speculation in Auckland, New Zealand, the second most unaffordable market in the world.

The study considers rental property purchases from 2002 to 2016 within the Auckland region. The authors apply a simple cash flow model that emulates the before-tax investment calculations used during purchasers’ due diligence. From this model, the authors determine whether purchases involved speculation on capital gains or not and the authors estimate the degree of speculation at the transaction level.

The authors find that housing speculation in Auckland is endemic and its housing market is a politically condoned, finance-fuelled casino with investors broadly betting on tax-free capital gains.

Although political leaders have decried that the “speculation-driven housing bubble in Auckland is a social and economic disaster”, the government’s main anti-speculation tool – the Income Tax Act’s intention test – sits idle and inoperable. By holstering this key policy tool, politicians foster housing speculation and use residential property investment to buttress New Zealand’s asset-based welfare system.

The authors develop novel methods to objectively distinguish speculators from genuine investors, measure the speculative pressure applied by individual rental property purchasers and outline an evidence-based approach to operationalise New Zealand’s currently impotent anti-speculation tool, the intention test.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the staged implementation of inclusionary zoning (IZ) performs relative to conventional IZ programmes in terms of increasing the number of low- and moderate-income households become homeowners.

The paper applies a matching model implemented through a mixed-integer programme model taking Auckland (New Zealand) housing market as a case study. The IZ is simulated by two features: a target price (below which affordable houses are defined) and the income threshold (below which any household gains access to the programme). The staging of IZ consists of first directing affordable houses to low-income households, where those houses that are not sold are cascaded to subsequent population groups with higher incomes.

The staged implementation of IZ does not necessarily imply that the number of sales will increase both for affordable and market-rate houses. However, a hybrid approach defined by two target prices results in a greater number of sales relative to a conventional IZ and a baseline affordable market while achieving market efficiency and equity.

The paper is limited to the marginal impact of new affordable houses entering the market. It does not address further market rounds for houses left empty for tractability purposes. Also, the analysis is circumscribed to current renters and not owners, if owners were included they would outbid renters and distort the intended impact of IZ as an affordable housing policy.

The paper has relevance for policymakers because it provides evidence about the dimensions of IZ to have a lasting effect on housing affordability. The model is applied to a single housing market but is suitable to be generalized and adapted to a different urban environment.

Numerical superstition is well-known in Asian countries and can influence decision-making in many markets, from financial investment to purchasing a house. This study aims to determine the house price effects of superstition and understand if these have changed over time.

Using sales transactions of freestanding houses in Auckland, New Zealand, the authors use hedonic price analysis to investigate whether superstitious beliefs associated with lucky and unlucky house numbers affect property values.

The analysis reveals ethnic Chinese buyers in Auckland displayed superstitious home buying behaviour in the period 2003-2006 by attributing value to homes with street addresses starting or ending with the lucky number eight. However, this willing to pay higher prices for lucky numbers was not reflected in the analysis of 2011-2015 sales transactions. The disappearance of superstition price effects may indicate that ethnic Chinese in the Auckland housing market have, over time, assimilated New Zealand’s Western culture and have become less superstitious.

Unlike previous studies, the authors parse buyers into two populations of homebuyers, ethnic Chinese and non-Chinese purchasers, and model the two groups’ housing transactions independently to more accurately establish if numerical superstition influences house prices.

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of submarkets on water view premiums of residential properties and investigate the correlation between submarket view premium and socio‐economic status.

Over 53,000 residential sales transactions from 2004 to 2006 are analysed using the hedonic method. The Auckland region is divided into 17 submarkets with similar water view scarcities. The region is analysed along with each individual submarket in order to determine if significant differences in view premiums exist.

The empirical results indicate that the regionwide model chronically over‐ or under‐estimates view premiums, for example, the regionwide model estimates that a wide water view adds 18 per cent to a home's value while the same view amenity adds only 5 per cent in modest West Harbour but 54 per cent in posh Mission Bay.

The study's findings can be directly applied to residential valuation practice and in particular mass appraisal systems.

This research fills a gap in the body of knowledge relating to water view externalities by investigating the differing price impacts across submarkets.

This paper attempts to explain the motivations of residential rental property investors in New Zealand in terms of the behavioural assumption of bounded rationality. Commencing with a rejection of the more standard neo‐classical economics view of rationality as an explanation of investment behaviour, the paper seeks to both examine the extent to which bounded rationality applies to the investment behaviour encountered and to elaborate on that behaviour. The discussion is underpinned by the findings of a postal survey of a large nationwide sample of private residential rental property owners, and is directly based on a study of a smaller sample of investors using in‐depth interview techniques. Qualitative analysis overlays the quantitative data, to enable better exploration of the constraints within which individual investors operate.

This paper aims to determine if proximity to cell phone towers influences house prices with a focus on isolating the impact of tower aesthetics on nearby property values.

Sales transaction data from the Auckland Region during 2005‐2007 were analysed using a series of hedonic models testing various proximity specifications across two populations of cell towers: residential‐only and global (all towers).

The study could not establish a relationship between cell towers and house prices with the exception of armed monopole towers located in residential areas due to such towers' acute visual disamenity.

The study's findings can be directly applied to residential valuation practice and can assist government regulators and telecommunication companies in siting new cell towers.

This research provides three distinct methodological improvements: unconventional geocoding that improves spatial accuracy, separate analysis of towers in residential areas that enhances internal validity and inclusion of tower mast data to isolate the impact of tower aesthetics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic viability of a new and innovative seismic damage resisting system (SDRS) device by conducting a feasibility study. The SDRS device has been patented and specifically designed to be implemented in multi-storey modular buildings in seismic regions such as New Zealand.

Using a case study approach, two sample modular multi-storey buildings were purposively selected for the study. A cost-comparison analysis was conducted using the SDRS device in the two buildings, by carrying out a measure and price exercise of the construction elements.

The research results showed that the SDRS device is an economically viable option for mitigating seismic damage in modular multi-storey buildings in New Zealand. There is an average of 7.34 per cent of cost reduction when SDRS is used in modular multi-storey buildings when compared to other seismic resistance systems such as base isolation, moment resisting frames and friction damper systems.

The economic viability of the SDRS presents an opportunity for its usage in modular design and construction of multi-storey buildings. SDRS system is also applicable to other building typologies and construction methods. The use of SDRS also aligns with the current national objective to provide more affordable and resilient housing within a limited time; the opportunity is considered significant in New Zealand, including for export and manufacturing.

The confirmation of the SDRS device’s economic feasibility is the original contribution of the authors.