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This paper aims to test two hypotheses related to the supposedly negative impact of rent control on residential mobility: the mobility of renters is, first, negatively related to how attractive their residential areas are and, second, relatively high for renters living in properties built after 2005.

This paper estimates logit and multinomial logit regressions and models household moves. The multinomial logit regressions separate between short- and long-distance moves and between moves to rentals and to owned dwellings. This paper uses the “relative income” of the tenants’ residential areas to proxy area attractiveness. This paper estimates regressions for entire Sweden and the three largest “commuting” regions and municipalities, respectively.

The full sample provides support of both hypotheses in all regressions. Hypothesis one gets stronger support for moves to other rentals than moves to owned dwellings but about equally strong support for short- and long-distance moves. Hypothesis one obtains strongest support in Gothenburg municipality while hypothesis two obtains strongest support in the Malmö region. Also, hypothesis two obtains stronger support for short-distance moves than long-distance moves and slightly stronger support for moves to owned dwellings than those to rented dwellings.

This paper does not estimate “how much” rent control affects mobility, and results cannot be used to design specific rent setting policies. Results may be sensitive to how different types of moves are defined.

Efforts to reform rent setting policies in Sweden are encouraged.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper’s two hypotheses are not tested before in Sweden and can be tested without control groups.

This paper analyses the effect of potential lease expiry on the rental negotiation process and levels of rental agreed. Several observers have noted that tenants may use the threat of lease termination at rental negotiations in order to obtain a rental and/or other concession. It is argued that it will often be rational for the landlord to make a rental concession in these circumstances and a model that identifies a theory‐forecasted concession level for landlords is developed. However, the bargaining process will often cause deviation from an equilibrium solution. The concession level of the landlord will be a function of four variables: expected landlord’s cost of void, probability of tenant relocation, landlord’s risk preference and the effects of the bargaining process. Utility theory is used to illustrate why the risk averse or risk neutral landlord in a potential lease termination situation will always maximise his/her utility by conceding an amount on the open market rental value provided that the landlord perceives the probability of lease termination to be greater than zero. However, although it is possible to identify a positive solution to the calculation of maximum concession, behavioural approaches to bargaining theory suggest that differences in individual negotiator’s attributes, social contexts and cognitive biases will also affect the outcome of a negotiated rent setting process.

The Swedish central government has implemented a radical market‐oriented reform of its real estate management. Authorities are free to rent premises from private firms, and stateowned properties have been allocated to a number of entities that lease their properties to authorities on conditions similar to those on the open market. The background and experience from these reforms are described in this paper. Local authorities and county councils have also reformed their real estate management systems in the same direction, but not as radically. There were many unexpected problems with implementing these systems, related for example to difficulties in writing good contracts for special purpose buildings, conflicts about rent setting and differences in bargaining power between the property‐owning units and the tenants/authorities. The general view is, however, that the reform created necessary economic incentives for the authorities in the public sector to economise on premises, but that it is very important to think through the details and to adjust the system to changing circumstances. An example is that the introduction of school vouchers created problems for some systems of setting internal asset rents.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of Swedish rent controls on observed vacancy rates for rental housing.

Housing vacancy rates are unevenly distributed among Swedish municipalities. In large expansive municipalities, such as Malmö, Göteborg and Stockholm, vacancy rates are very low, while in declining or smaller municipalities such as those in the northern and interior parts of Sweden, vacancy rates are considerably higher. This implies welfare losses not only in growing municipalities with queues for rental apartments but also in municipalities that are shrinking since the controlled rents there are higher than market rents and cause higher vacancy rates than with market rents. The authors estimate the influences of various determining factors, such as population growth, population size, rent levels, construction, demolition and market orientation of rents, on the observed vacancy rates.

The authors find that that these factors affect the vacancy rates differently depending on whether a municipality is large or small, growing or shrinking. Population growth, in percent per year, plays an important role in explaining the observed vacancy rates in declining regions.

A research task that remains to be done is to calculate the welfare losses due to rent higher than the market rent for municipalities in contraction.

To reduce the welfare losses of rent control, both in expanding and contracting municipalities, economists' straightforward recommendation to deregulate the rent control should, in principle, be carried out.

In many countries, rent control regulations are limited to cities, such as New York City. The paper shows that the Swedish rent control system however, applies nationwide, except for annual rent increases, which are set locally through negotiation.

Urbanization usually involves gentrification. Gentrification implies revitalization whereby housing becomes more up-market. This aim of this study is to ascertain whether conversion of tenure from rent to cooperative ownership might initiate a gentrification process. The focus is on the socio-economic composition of individuals living in the converted residential properties. The degree of gentrification is determined by the extent to which the original tenants are replaced by individuals with more resources.

The analysis is limited to the distinct of Östermalm in Stockholm city. The quantitative analysis is based on a longitudinal database, Geosweden, covering the total Swedish population in 1990-2000.

Östermalm is an inner city district with 60,000 inhabitants and a higher share of converted dwellings than any other district in Stockholm. About 2,300 dwellings were converted between 1991 and 1996. Limited indications of social change can be identified during the conversion.

The conversion was completed in 1995. All indicators of gentrification point to social change through residential mobility in 1995-2000. Individuals who moved into the converted properties had more disposable income than those who moved out or stayed in 1995-2000. They also had higher levels of education. The results also point to families with children as a new group of gentrifiers.

The purpose of this paper is to re‐appraise the role of the private renting in the housing system drawing on a review of public policies toward the sector in six countries. It re‐examines the adequacy of explanations about tenurial “competition” and the dynamics of tenurial change using a cross disciplinary perspective.

The paper critiques key explanations on the nature and type of competition between housing tenures, notably dual and unitary models, and the role of private renting in explanations of tenure dynamics. The paper also explores some of these ideas empirically by examining the changing role of the private renting relative to other tenures in a number of European countries and in Australia.

The paper expresses doubts about the potential for unitary markets to develop/continue as integrated markets because of the fundamental problems about ensuring continuing investment in the private rented sector and constraints on the maturation process, particularly where ownership of rental housing is diverse and small‐scale. The analysis suggests that housing tenures are quite fluid and with a general trend towards deregulation of private rents there is a blurring of the distinction between different types of rental systems.

The analysis suggests that it is critical to understand changes in private renting taking into account broader economic conditions, trade‐offs about housing consumption and investment, and public policy settings.

The analysis draws out theoretically, and explores empirically, the process of change in tenure relations by for the first time focusing on the role of private renting in these dynamics.

At the Conservative Party Conference of 1986, the Minister of State for Housing, Mr John Patten, outlined his intentions for a new Rent Bill to be included in his party's general election manifesto. This directs the spotlight onto rented housing and Mr Patten's slogan ‘the right to rent’ will no doubt lead to a lively discussion. This paper aims to contribute to the debate by reviewing two major housing reports as they relate to rents and making further suggestions.

With asset liability management (ALM), all the relevant asset and liability classes are managed in an integrated fashion. We describe an ALM model for housing associations. This model uses simulation to show the development of a housing association, usually measured as solvency and profitability, dependent on both internal (strategy) and external (economy) factors. In order to assess the associations’ risk and return profile, we generate a large number of economic scenarios. Furthermore, we will show the pitfalls of just using one or a few scenarios. Finally, we will show how this model can be used to obtain insight into the influence and effectiveness of specific instruments.

Notes an increasing interest in valuation of publicly owned real estate, and also controversy about the relevance of different concepts of value, especially for special purpose properties. Argues that it is important to distinguish between different contexts before taking a stand on this issue. Discusses three such contexts: external information, asset management and introduction of buyer‐provider models for real estate services within the public sector. Concludes that there is no type of public property for which the question of asset value is unimportant, and also that the information provided by aggregate values and a traditional balance‐sheet is small.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the retail rent of shopping centres in Wuhan, an important city in central China.

The study uses a data set of 68 shopping centres in urban Wuhan. A regression model is constructed to estimate the impact on retail rent of a composite range of variables that would capture the physical characteristics, spatial characteristics, potential attractiveness of shopping centres and market condition.

The empirical findings suggest the ceiling height, closeness to metro line station, being situated in commercial central area, vacancy rate and income have significant impact on rental level. Unexpected, the retail mix has a significant negative impact on rent. The impact of the more determining factors found in Western research – size, age, parking space and anchor tenant – is not supported in the Wuhan study.

While 68 shopping centres are included in the test, the sample size is relatively small. The comparatively short history of retail market in Wuhan would not allow to test the rent adjustment process.

This is the first paper to investigate retail rent determinants in a second-tier city in China. The results of the study give designers, developers and investors critical insights into the determinants of retail rent in an emerging market.