The Asymmetric Effects of Regional House Prices in the UK: New Evidence from Panel Quantile Regression Framework

Abstract

This study unfurls the non-linear behaviour of regional house prices in the United Kingdom by employing quarterly observations spanning the period 1992Q1–2017Q4. Our enquiry aims at examining UK house prices within a multivariable framework and, more specifically, by employing panel quantile regression with fixed effect. In brief, the empirical findings obtained from these methodologies indicate that the UK house prices are influenced at lower and upper quantiles, and that precisely they are influenced by variables such as income, private sector housing starts and employment. We highly support that there is a strong heterogeneity among UK regions and that asymmetry may be one of the keys of the ripple effect. Particularly, the income shows a positively significant performance at lower and higher regional house prices. Moreover, the variables private sector housing starts and employment rate are statistically significant for house prices. Leveraging for first-time panel quantile regression for the case of regional house prices in the UK, policymakers will have a profound understanding of regional house prices. JEL Classifications: C22, R21, R31