Scottish Land Commission publish REP research in new report

The report, ‘Land for Housing and Development’, considers how land reform can address concerns over housing shortages and affordability of housing across the UK.

The University of Reading team was asked by the Scottish Land Commission to investigate the relationship between housing development land prices and house prices, to clarify whether high house prices cause high residential land prices or vice versa. The investigation found that whilst there was no single or one-way direction of causation between land prices and house prices, a policy that reduces housing development land prices by increasing land supply in a competitive environment would reduce house prices over the long-term.

The implication of these findings for policy makers is that policy should not be targeted at managing short term price fluctuations in housing and residential development land, but rather focused on long term trends with regard to housing and land supply.

To read the full press release and report from the Scottish Land Commission click here.