Measuring the Housing Market Demand Elasticity in China—Based on the Rational Price Expectation and the Provincial Panel Data

By using panel data of 31 provinces or cities during 1998-2012 in China, this paper measured the housing market demand elasticity. Different from the previous related research, we considered the impact of housing price expectations on housing demand and distinguished between the housing consumption demand price elasticity and investment demand price elasticity. The results showed that there were differences in different regions on housing market demand elasticity such as price elasticity of housing consumption demand, price elasticity of housing investment demand and housing demand income elasticity, etc. The results could provide useful suggestions on regulating the real estate by the Chinese government.