The urban housing policy and the role of the residenial market in meeting housing needs

Abstract

The housing policy tasks faced by local authorities often exceed the range of tools at their disposal. This is especially true in large cities, where housing needs are accumulated. The first objective of this paper is to determine how provincial cities impact the degree of housing need satisfaction of their inhabitants. The second objective is to propose an econometric model to explain the functioning of the residential market in a provincial city. The study uses a descriptive method, statistical data analysis and a quantitative method in the form of a vector autoregression model. The study indicated that provincial city authorities can establish real housing policy mainly by interfering in the local residential market with the use of spatial planning policy. The effects of the latter are embodied by number of building permits, which can generate the reduction of average housing prices in a provincial city.