The process of land development and housing construction generates a large amount of profit, which is called as development gains or betterment. Elaborate system of regulations on land development, sale of developed land, price of newly built houses, ...
The process of land development and housing construction generates a large amount of profit, which is called as development gains or betterment. Elaborate system of regulations on land development, sale of developed land, price of newly built houses, and allocation new houses among potential buyers affects how development gains are divided among parties involved. Current literature, which analysed the period of house sale price regulation, has concluded that home buyers benefit the most, but market conditions as well as regulations have changed since. We compiled nationwide micro data which enable us compute the development gains allocated to land owners, housing developers, and home buyers. The data covers the period between 2004 and 2008 when house sale prices were no longer regulated. Our result shows that after the deregulation, home buyers outside the Capital Region have suffered loss on average, while land owners have always gained a large profit. Obviously, housing developers and home buyers were excessively optimistic on prospects of house prices. This excessive optimism on the part of developers resulted in huge stock of unsold houses.