Some Factors Explaining Variations in Rents of Downtown Apartments for 49 Cities of the World

Abstract

There exists a substantial variation in apartment rents between cities of the world. Several factors must contribute to inter-city variations in rents. This paper presents an empirical identification and measurement of some of the relevant factors explaining the variations in rents between a sample of forty-nine cities. The results of our empirical analysis show that the variables which explain inter-city variations in rents are: population size, costs of public and private intra-urban transport, tax assessments, and social insurance contributions.