Research Areas

The aim of this project is to analyze the importance of the condition of housing as a real estate asset -that is, its fixed location once it is built- to explain the two different types of problems related to housing, both of great economic and social relevance. The first is the significant effects of the persistent housing oversupply in some areas on the creation of added value and the productivity of the economy; a mismatch that is difficult to reduce because they are assets with very long useful lives. This mismatch stems from a now-past real estate boom, the consequences of which are still being felt, as confirmed by data from the recent Population and Housing Census published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE 2023) and the low levels of capital productivity in many provinces of Spain. These are lessons from the past that should not be forgotten when interpreting the second, more current problem: an excess demand for housing in certain urban areas with highly dynamic demographics, whose purchase and rental markets are strained by an increase in mobility and the tendency to concentrate economic activities in metropolitan areas. These tensions are not equivalent to an overall lack of housing supply or investment.