The Unassuming Economist

From the IMF’s latest report on Slovak Republic:

“There are early signs of a buildup of imbalances in the housing market. Overall house prices have increased in line with peers in the region. A regression-based assessment also shows that overall price increases since 2013 can largely be explained by economic fundamentals (…). Nonetheless, rising house price-to-income ratio shows a mild deviation from the historical average. Flat prices in urban areas have increased much more than the average house price, reflecting strong demand from domestic investors and migrant rural workers as well as supply constraints resulting from limited plot availability and lengthy processes to obtain construction permits. The underdevelopment of the rental housing market—counting only around 10 percent of the housing market— contributes to higher property prices.”

 

The authorities’ pro-active macroprudential policy stance is welcome and could be strengthened as follows.

• Reduce NPLs of less systemic institutions. The authorities’ initiative to require banks with high NPL ratios to develop an NPL reduction strategy is welcome and their efforts to reduce NPLs should be sustained. To contain credit risks, building societies should be required to increase the NPL coverage ratio. The recently introduced regulatory cap on the share of long-maturity loans in new loans extended by building societies (20 percent for loans with 20–30 years of maturity and 10 percent for loans with 25–30 years of maturity) should be complemented by a cap on the share of uncollateralized loans in total loans.

• Enhance capital buffers of weaker banks. Staff supported incremental use of the counter-cyclical capital buffers (CCyB) and supervisory (Pillar II) capital requirements to enhance resilience of banks to shocks and the authorities’ readiness to further increase the CCyB. In addition, considering the uneven asset quality across banks, the authorities should strongly consider imposing non-zero Pillar II capital guidance for less systemic institutions in 2019 taking into account supervisory stress test results.

• Allow the bank levy to expire. The bank levy, imposed on liabilities (less equity) of banks, weighs heavily on unprofitable banks—in some cases, claiming more than 30 percent of pre-tax income. As the initial targeted amount (EUR 750 million) has already been collected, the levy should be allowed to expire in 2021 as legislated to help these banks safeguard profitability and accumulate buffers.

• Better internalize mortgage credit risks. The average risk weights in the internal models of systemic foreign bank subsidiaries in Slovakia are lower than in most other EU peers reflecting historically low default rates. To discourage excessive risk taking, the authorities should strongly consider introducing a risk weight add-on on housing loans to require banks to better internalize credit risks, which can be complemented with a floor on risk weights on housing loans. The authorities should also be vigilant about possible risks that mortgage brokers may facilitate loosening lending standards of banks.

Considerations should be given to remove preferential tax treatment of housing related capital gains and link real-estate taxation to the market value of the property. These measures are expected to curb demand for real estate, particularly demand related to investment reasons, and add to fiscal revenues. Staff welcomed efforts to streamline regulatory procedures for construction permits, which could improve housing supply and ease price pressures. Legal frameworks governing the rental house market in Slovakia discourage the development of longterm rental market given strong protection of tenants’ rights for contracts beyond two years. Introducing a more balanced regulation of landlord-tenant rights could reduce demand for home ownership from over-leveraged or low-income households.

Continued efforts are needed to implement a robust AML/CFT framework. The authorities made efforts to transpose EU 4th AML Directive in 2018 and are now preparing the AML/CFT Action Plan 2019–22, based on the National Risk Assessment carried out in 2017–18. Sustained efforts are needed, including to improve disciplinary processes, step-up bank employee trainings, strengthen measures to support anti-corruption efforts, and enhance operational independence and effectiveness of the Financial Intelligence Unit.

Strong home-host cooperation should continue. Given the dominance of foreign banks in Slovak banking system, strong home-host cooperation including close engagements in Joint Supervisory Teams in SSM is critical. With limited domestic capacity to absorb bail-inable bonds, encouraging banks to have higher non-regulatory capital buffers may also help them meet minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). To fill the gaps identified at European level regulations by the recent euro area FSAP, the domestic regulatory regime should require banks to obtain authorities’ pre-approval in acquiring qualifying holdings of non-bank entities and to periodically report the ultimate beneficial owners of their qualifying holdings.”

From the IMF’s latest report on Portugal:

“Growth of the Portuguese House Price Index (HPI) decelerated to 9.3 percent y-o-y in 2018:Q4 from its 12.2 percent y-o-y peak in 2018:Q1. Price increases have been more pronounced for existing dwellings, rising 9.5 percent y-o-y in 2018:Q4 and, in particular, in Lisbon and Porto, with the median value per square meter increasing more than 23 percent y-o-y in 2018:Q4. Data from the OECD (…) indicate that the price-to-rent and price-to-income ratios are slightly above their 2000:Q1–2018:Q3 averages, which suggests that housing markets are not significantly overvalued.

A significant part of the transactions driving real estate prices up in key locations are linked to the strong growth in the tourism sector and direct investments by non-residents. The share of purchases by nonresidents in the total number of transactions has strengthened from 2014 (…). Nonresidents were especially active in the higher end of the property market, with the share of nonresident purchases in the total value of transactions in the >€500k segment exceeding 35 percent during 2013–17. These indicators may understate the participation of foreign investors in the real estate market, because some buyers acquire resident status when they buy a property.”

On the US:

• Lots of folks over 65 are spending a lot on housing – Richard’s Real Estate and Urban Economics Blog
• To Encourage New Housing, Tax It – Wall Street Journal
• Meeting America’s Affordable Housing Needs Requires GSE Reform, and More – The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
• Recession Signals: Home Sales Trend Lower in All Four Regions – Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• A New Approach on Housing Affordability – New York Times
• Kamala Harris’ Plan To End the Racial Homeownership Gap Doubles Down on the Worst Aspects of U.S. Housing Policy – Reason
• Rebounds in Homeownership Have Not Reduced the Gap for Black Homeowners – The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
• Democrats May Inflate Another Housing Bubble – Wall Street Journal
• Can This Factory Produce a Cheaper Apartment? – Citylab
• Don’t look now, but home equity delinquencies are rising – American Banker

On other countries:

• [Chile] Chile’s house prices are rising strongly – Global Property Guide
• [Portugal] Portugal Passes ‘Right to Housing’ Law As Prices Surge – Citylab

From the IMF’s latest report on the Euro Area:

“Macroprudential policies should be used more actively to manage financial vulnerabilities in both housing and corporate sectors. France, for example, has tightened large exposure limits for big French banks lending to highly indebted corporates, and some countries have increased their countercyclical capital buffers. However, bank-based tools cannot address risks arising from nonbank loans. As recommended in the 2018 FSAP, borrower-based tools could be legislated where they are currently unavailable, and used more proactively against risky firms and households. In particular a range of borrower-based tools for corporates (such as limits on loan-to-value ratios for commercial real estate, debt/equity caps and minimum ICRs) should be explored, and national macroprudential supervisors should have the authority to use these tools for all financial institutions. The authorities should also monitor liquidity risks in investment funds that are increasingly exposed to lower-grade corporate debt and real estate in search for yield. In order to be effective, comprehensive and comparable credit information systems need to be available in all countries. Urgently addressing data gaps in the area of commercial real estate and nonbank financial institutions is also needed to allow a fuller assessment of financial stability risks.”

From the IMF’s latest report on Germany:

“Real estate prices continue to rise rapidly while aggregate credit growth remains in check.

• House prices in major cities have continued to rise rapidly, moving further into overvaluation territory. Staff analysis suggests that house prices were overvalued in Germany’s main cities, from 10–15 percent in Stuttgart and Dusseldorf to 25–30 percent in Hannover, Frankfurt and Hamburg and more than 40 percent in Munich in 2017.11 The government has stepped up efforts to increase housing supply, including by allocating €2 billion to build 100,000 new social housing units during 2020–21, selling federally-owned properties to local authorities at reduced prices to build affordable housing, and providing a special depreciation allowance for new rental housing construction. The impact on house prices, however, is expected to be limited.

• Commercial real estate (CRE) prices have risen even faster than house prices (…) with a moderate decline in the yield on CRE investment (…). Price increases have been particularly large in the office sub-segment and banks’ exposure to the sector has risen over the last three years, despite the sizable share of equity-based and foreign-financed investment.

• These rapid price increases have not yet been accompanied by strong increases in credit growth at the aggregate level. Credit growth accelerated to a pace slightly exceeding nominal GDP growth, but the credit-to-GDP ratio remains low from a historical perspective and compared with other advanced economies. Bank lending to CRE-related activities also appears relatively small compared to the EU average, yet the impact of a sharp decline in CRE prices on bank balance sheets could still be important as defaults on CRE tend to be higher than those on residential real estate.

Additional macroprudential action is needed to guard against imbalances in the real estate sector.

• Urgently address data gaps. The Bank Lending Survey suggests that LTV ratios for new mortgage loans have been relatively stable on an aggregate basis (…), yet lack of granular loan information hinders a full assessment of potential financial stability risks in specific market segments. It is essential that these data gaps be addressed.

• Consider prompt activation of the existing borrower-based measures. Absent granular data alongside the prolonged rise in house prices, the authorities should consider implementing an LTV cap and amortization requirements on mortgages.

• Expand the macroprudential toolkit. Germany currently lacks income-based instruments for residential and CRE lending or other borrowerbased instruments for CRE lending. The authorities should consider introducing income-based instruments, such as a debt-toincome or debt-service-to-income cap. In addition, appropriate instruments for CRE should also be considered, taking into account diverse financing structures. As the government is currently reviewing the effectiveness of existing instruments, this is a right time to consider expanding the toolkit.”