Pairwise Convergence of District-level House Prices in London

Abstract

This paper investigates the long-run convergence of district-level house prices in Greater London using the recently developed pairwise approach. This methodology allows for unit root tests to be conducted on all N( N-1)/2 possible pairs of house price differentials across the N boroughs of London, thus avoiding the need to choose a base borough of reference or the regional average as the benchmark. It also permits the estimation, consistently, of the proportion of the pairs that are stationary and convergent. Using HM Land Registry house price data for 33 Inner and Outer London boroughs over the period 1996q1–2009q2, no overall multidistrict long-run convergence is found. Some evidence of district-level segmentation of house prices in Greater London is found, with the sub-group of the boroughs contiguous to the ‘City of London’ district and the wider ‘central’ sub-market emerging as the clubs with the highest rate of convergence.