Land/real estate development and financial crisis : a case study of financial crises during 1980-2013

Abstract

Since the Great Depression in 1929-1939, four major far-reaching financial crises took place: the collapse of Japanese asset price bubble in the 1990s, 1997 Asia Financial Crisis, 2007 US sub-prime mortgage crisis and the subsequent global economic recession, and the on-going European sovereign debt crisis, together with other minor crises in specific regions (for example, Icelandic Financial Crisis from 2008), played havoc with not only economy but towards every aspect of the society, and became a focus in academia as well. Many efforts have been paid to find out the primary reasons so that specific measures can be taken to avoid the recurrence of similar crises.

This dissertation attempts to reveal the relationship between financial crises and land / real estate sector, which discusses the process that a real estate crisis turns into a financial crisis, and analyses a common phenomenon that almost all recent financial crises usually began from the crises in real estate sector. It concludes the common features in these crises with a flow from a real estate bubble towards a financial crisis, that the misconduct of government in real estate sector as well as the over-blown market confidence would usually be the original sin of an economic failure.

This study takes both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research this topic by studying common features in recent financial crises. Review of historical crisis shall focus on real estate aspect, and among the several most influential and recent crises it will place emphasis on the bubble in 1990s’ Japan.

In addition, this dissertation also takes a look at China’s current situation and suggest possible problems by comparing with historical experiences, particularly with the period of Japanese asset bubble.