The Spatial Structuring of Interurban Housing Markets: Application to Building Sites Prepared for Self-Provided Housing

The author supports the argument that a focus on the spatiality of economic mechanisms can be a valuable way to address the issue of interurban housing markets, a theme which has not yet been adequately addressed by academic research. Developments are based on a theoretical framework in which two factors are considered central to the structuring of markets: (i) the possibility of choice between substitutable supplies (spatially related to the territory prospected by the consumer), and (ii) the availability of information on the state of the market (spatially related to the use of local sales references when market participants prepare their negotiations). This theoretical framework is empirically applied to the case of building sites prepared for self-built housing, with a modelling methodology elaborated for Belgium. The modelling methodology, based on cross-sectional regressions, develops a spatial autoregressive specification and incorporates a multiscale comparison. By highlighting the importance of information availability and demand substitutability, this exercise confirms that a focus on interurban market spatiality can be helpful to housing researchers. In fact, the results suggest that such a focus is particularly appropriate to the analysis of the impact of planning regulations on market outcomes.