House Prices in Georgia

"Despite an overall positive outlook, there are several key macroeconomic vulnerabilities that would impact the financial sector: (...) Sudden decline in asset prices. As more than half of domestic private credit is backed by real estate, continued increases in real estate prices toward the pre-collapse level in 2008 could become a source of vulnerability," says a new IMF report on Georgia.

House Prices in Denmark

"Danish house prices bottomed out and have recently started to pick up gradually. From the 2007 peak to the 2012 bottom, real house price dropped by about 30 percent. Real house prices started to rise in 2013 and grew 2.6 percent (y/y) in the second quarter of 2014 even though the pace of house price recovery varies across regions and types of housing (e.g., a stronger recovery in the prices of owner occupied flats in the Copenhagen area). Staff estimates based on three different metrics (price-to income ratio, price-to-rent ratio, and model based) suggest that house prices are currently close to fundamentals," says the latest IMF report on Denmark. 

Moreover, the report says that "Danish household debt continues to be the highest among the OECD countries, in large part to finance housing wealth. Household debt has been always relatively high in Denmark, but it grew rapidly during the housing boom, facilitated by the introduction of deferred amortization loans in 2003, reaching about 300 percent of disposable income. On the other side of the balance sheet, household assets are also large with positive net worth. However, these assets consist mostly of illiquid mandatory pension accounts and housing, leaving households with limited liquid buffers and making them more vulnerable to interest rate shocks. The need to rebuild balance sheets has depressed private consumption, weighing on the recovery in recent years." Continue reading here. Also, see a special note on the mortgage finance system here.

Macro-Prudential Policies in Kuwait

"The CBK has been proactive in introducing macroprudential regulations in line with international practices to mitigate potential financial stability risks. The main source of vulnerability to the banking system comes from credit concentration to the corporate sector and real estate, given the structure of Kuwait’s domestic market, which the central bank regulates through concentration limits. The main sectoral exposures of banks are in real estate, equity and household lending, the latter two regulated through ceilings on equity investments and debt-to-income limits, respectively. Having tracked increased activity in real estate, the central bank introduced a loan-to-value ratio for residential real estate for investment purposes of individuals in November 2013, to limit financial stability risks, which staff welcomes. Staff has also observed that activity has been recently increasing in investment properties and commercial real estate segments of the real estate market, which the central bank is closely watching and ready to use macroprudential tools to limit potential stability risks to the banking system arising from this sector," according to latest IMF report on Kuwait.

Macro-Prudential Policies in Turkey

The latest IMF's report on Turkey lists the recent macro-prudential policies implemented. To see the list click here.

House Prices in Netherlands

"The global recession and regulatory tightening have helped deflate the housing prices with the losses falling disproportionately on the younger generations. House prices have declined by 27 percent in real terms since their peak in late 2008. The deflation of Dutch housing prices has caused massive losses of wealth which are unevenly distributed across generations. Younger house buyers are burdened by the lion’s share of losses in housing wealth. In addition to greater housing losses, younger households have not have sufficient time to accumulate pension claims and other (financial) assets households under the age of 35 have negligible levels of net worth," according to a new IMF report on Netherlands.

Read here the full note on House Prices, Consumption, and the Household Debt Overhang in the Netherlands. Also, read here the note on Building a More Resilient and Efficient Market for Housing and Finance in the Netherlands.

IIMB-IMF Conference on Housing Markets, Financial Stability and Growth

Here are links to papers and presentations for the conference. A link to the speech by Ratna Sahay will be posted later. Scroll down for links to papers and presentations on housing finance (by Frank Warnock, Veronica Warnock, Simon Walley); on urbanization (Somik Lall, Tony Venables); house prices in emerging markets (Hites Ahir, Mick Silver and Alessandro Rebucci); and the housing market in India (H. A. C. Prasad, Lalit Kumar, and Charan Singh). Also, see a blog by Min Zhu on Managing House Price Booms in Emerging Markets, IMF's Deputy Managing Director. 

Inaugural Address
R V Verma, Former Chairman, NHB


Session 1: Macroprudential Policies

Chair: Arvind Virmani, Former ED, IMF

Ratna Sahay, IMF
How to Manage Housing Booms: What Does the Cross-Country Evidence Show? (PPT)

Jihad Dagher, IMF
Housing Finance and Real Estate Booms: A Cross-Country Perspective

Discussant: Hans Genberg, Bank Negara Malaysia and SEACEN (PPT)


Session 2: Frontiers of Housing Research

Chair: Hans Genberg, Bank Negara Malaysia and SEACEN

Inho Song, Korea Development Institute
Housing as a Unique Asset

Discussant: Mico Loretan, Swiss National Bank (PPT)

Chetan Subramanian, IIM-Bangalore
Asset Price Bubbles and Endogenous Growth

Discussant: Romar Correa, University of Mumbai


Session 3: Housing Finance

Chair: K Kanagasabapathy, Former Adviser-in-charge, MPD, RBI

Veronica Warnock, University of Virginia
Developing Housing Finance Systems: A Global Perspective 

Simon Walley, World Bank
Housing the World: Leveraging Private Sector Resources for the Public Good (PPT)

Frank Warnock, University of Virginia
Housing Finance in Latin America: What is Holding it Back? 

Discussants: R. S. Deshpande, Former Director, ISEC
                     Devi Prasad, Former Director, FPI

Session 4: Urbanization

Chair: R. S. Deshpande, Former Director, ISEC

Somik Lall, World Bank
Urbanization and Housing Investment (PPT)

Discussant: Frank Warnock, University of Virginia

Tony Venables, Oxford
Housing in African Cities: Why it Matters and What is Going Wrong (PPT)

Discussant: Ashima Goyal, IGIDR, Mumbai (PPT)

Session 5: Understanding House Prices

Chair: Ashima Goyal, IGIDR, Mumbai

Hites Ahir, IMF
House Prices in Emerging Markets (PPT)

Mick Silver, IMF
Real Estate Price Measurement: Availability and Importance (PPT)

Discussant: Manoranjan Sharma, GM, Canara Bank

Alessandro Rebucci, Johns Hopkins University
Capital Flows, House Prices and the Macroeconomy (PPT)

Discussant: Mick Silver, IMF (PPT)

Session 6: Housing Markets and Monetary Policy in India

Chair: Alok Sheel, Secretary, Government of India

Presenter: H. A. C. Prasad, MoF, Gol; Lalit Kumar, National Housing Bank and Charan Singh, IIM-Bangalore
Housing Market in India (PPT)

Roundtable: Senior management from State Bank of India, ICICI, State Bank of Mysore and Canara Bank

Valedictory Address

G. S. Sandhu, Former Secretary, Financial Services, MoF, GoI