Article of the Month - 
	  May 2013
     | 
   
 
  	    
		Revisiting the Interaction between the Nigerian Residential Property 
		Market and the Macroeconomy
		Ismail OJETUNDE, Nigeria
		
		
		1)  This paper is a Nigerian 
		Peer Review paper, which was presented at FIG Working Week 2013, 6-10 
		May, in Abuja, Nigeria. Like last month article, this paper highlights 
		one of the challenges Nigerian surveyors are dealing with, namely the 
		Nigerian property market. At the conference many papers highlighted the 
		current challenges Nigerians surveyors are faced with. You can find the 
		papers
		here. 
		Key words: Macroeconomy, property, property market, 
		residential, rents. 
		SUMMARY
		The study of residential price dynamics and macro economic 
		developments are important for virile economic and social policies 
		formulation at both local and national scales. This paper revisits the 
		interaction between the Nigerian macroeconomy and the operation of its 
		residential property market using econometric analysis. By employing a 
		larger sample and different data analysis approaches (pairwise 
		correlations, cointegration, granger causality and vector 
		autoregression) the objective is to provide further evidence on the 
		extent to which the property market is integrated or linked to 
		macroeconomy. Evidence suggests that macroeconomic variables (real gross 
		domestic product, inflation, exchange and interest rates) have long term 
		relationship with residential property rents in Nigeria. The results of 
		the granger causality shows that both exchange and interest rates have 
		useful information for predicting residential property rents over and 
		above the past values of other macroeconomic variables. Aside, the 
		result of the variance decomposition within the vector autoregressive 
		model further confirmed that real GDP and Exchange rate combined 
		forecast 31.4% of the variance in residential property rents. This study 
		concludes that the response of the residential property market to 
		macroeconomic shocks of interest rate, real GDP, and exchange rate 
		implies a relatively slow adjustment of the property market to the ever 
		changing macroeconomic events in Nigeria making long run equilibrium 
		elusive. These findings are significant for the continued development of 
		the Nigerian property market which is fraught with poor market 
		information. 
		1. INTRODUCTION  
		Residential property is a dynamic commodity characterized by 
		structural durability, spatial immobility and its physically modifiable 
		nature. As a consumption and investment commodity, residential property 
		exerts profound influence on the socio-economic and psychological 
		well-being of individuals, households and socio-ethnic groups. Since 
		residential property constitutes the bulk of any country’s tangible 
		capital, the study of residential price dynamics and macro economic 
		developments are important for economic and social policies formulation 
		on both local and national scales. Numerous theoretical and econometric 
		studies have however investigated the relationship between residential 
		price (which has remained a significant feature of most markets for 
		housing services in the world) and the economy (for example, see Barras 
		and Ferguson, 1985, 1987a & 1987b; Hekman, 1985; Kling and McCue, 1987& 
		1991; DiPasquale and Wheaton, 1996). Aside investigating the link 
		between property and the wider economy, a point of convergence in these 
		previous literature, is the existence of interaction and interdependency 
		between property and the economy. For instance, during periods of 
		macroeconomic stability, cycles in property tend to be endogenous 
		(caused by disequilibria in the sector) and are relatively subdued and 
		in periods of macroeconomic instability, property cycles tend to be 
		exogenous (caused by various conditions in the macroeconomy) and 
		sometimes feature exceptional fluctuations (Dehesh and Pugh, 1995 
		p.2581). Although this cause and feedback mechanisms described by Dehesh 
		and Pugh (1995)is a feature of most market based system, the focal point 
		of this research however is not on endogenous influences, but rather the 
		nexus between real estate and exogenous influences of the economy.  
		Earlier studies of this nature provided evidence on the link between 
		property and the exogenous factors of the economy but have been 
		considerably skewed to only the United kingdom and United States (McCue 
		and Kling, 1994; Brooks and Tsolasco, 1999; Ling and Naranjo, 2003) with 
		both countries having well integrated and transparent property markets. 
		In developing countries, such evidence is limited to India (Joshi, 2006; 
		Vishwakarma and French, 2010). In Nigeria, recent study by Ojetunde et 
		al. (2011) has empirically discountenance the assumption that the 
		residential property market in Nigeria is not coupled or linked with the 
		economy. This research revisit the interaction between the economy and 
		the operation of the residential property market by extending the study 
		period (between 1984 and 2011) and improving on the data analysis 
		approaches in Ojetunde et al. (2011) study. Unlike studies in developed 
		economies which employed data on paper-backed securities, this study 
		explore the use of nominal rents from direct property investment in the 
		absence of property returns from the Nigerian Stock Market.  
		2. THE OPERATION OF THE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY MARKET AND THE 
		ECONOMY: A REVIEW  
		Unlike other highly durable goods, the market for property and by 
		extension, the operation of residential property presents a somewhat 
		peculiar complexity as it comprises three (3) independent but connected 
		markets linked to the economy. Fig.1 provides for a simple residential 
		property model and link it with other exogenous systems (local and 
		national economies and the capital markets). To start with, the model 
		shows three important components (space, asset and development markets) 
		which on their own represent market arenas where trade take place and 
		prices are determined through demand and supply interplay ( Keogh 1994; 
		Fischer 1999 and Geltner et al., 2007).  
		The space market involves the interaction of the demand by 
		residential property users with the current stock of space made 
		available by the landlords. It is this result of demand-supply 
		interaction which predicts the pattern of rents and the level of 
		occupancy with vacancy clearing the market. Within the space market, the 
		demand for residential space is aptly affected by the national and local 
		economies. A growth in real wages for example may encourage new 
		households’ formation and hence an increase in demand for residential 
		physical space. For instance, property rights can be packaged in the 
		short run in form of use rights to property users in return for 
		residential rents (use values).  
		In the asset market, Viezer, (1999) concludes that the rent 
		determined in the space market is central in determining the demand for 
		real estate assets because this cash flow in form of rents interacts 
		with the cap rates required by investors, with the end product being the 
		property market/ capital values.  
		
		  
		Fig.1: A Model of Residential Property Market: Interaction of the Space, 
		Asset and the  
		Development Markets with other Exogenous Systems. Source: Geltner et 
		al.,(2007). 
		As such what investors are really buying is the discounted present 
		value of asset’s expected income flow. The cap rates which investors 
		require in sealing real estate transactions in the asset market are 
		affected by opportunity cost of capital (since the desirability of 
		buying and selling real estate must be considered within a wide spectrum 
		of other investment opportunities operating within the capital markets), 
		growth expectation of future rents and investors perception of risk 
		associated with real estate investment vis-à-vis other investment 
		outlets in the capital markets (Ling and Archer, 1997b and Geltner et 
		al., 2007).  
		 
		On one hand, clear independency however exists between space (use) 
		and asset markets with respect to right to use space (user rights) as 
		different from the right to hold a purely financial investment interest 
		in property (investor rights). On the other hand, connectivity is 
		evident as the use and investment rights subsisting in a property 
		ownership (for instance in an unencumbered freehold interest) is 
		mediated through the development market to meet changing market 
		requirements of users and investors. It is these market changes in users 
		and investors requirements which stimulate development activity and 
		development in turns supplies new user and investors rights into the 
		market (Keogh, 1994). For example, development would only occur insofar 
		as property rent can offset the long run marginal cost of a property 
		(Geltner et al., 2007). It is this singular condition which ensures that 
		the development market employ physical and financial resources to 
		construct new built space as well as refurbishment, rehabilitation or 
		conversion of existing buildings. The role of development therefore 
		comes to bear in differing ways: An economy in recession needs existing 
		built space so as to continue to function. Conversely, structural 
		changes in form of modifying existing dwellings (through refurbishment 
		and conversion) and new construction of dwellings (resulting from 
		outward expansion on undeveloped land) is necessary due to economic 
		growth or structural shifts in the economy.  
		Aside the foregoing simple property market model, numerous empirical 
		studies by Barras, (1983); Barras and Ferguson, (1987a, 1987b) and 
		Barras, (1994) have shown how building boom is triggered through the 
		combinations of conditions in the real economy, credit economy and 
		property market. The focal point of these studies is the derivation of a 
		theoretical framework which has been tested using time-series modelling 
		techniques to uncover the dynamics and operations within the property 
		market. Exploring this theme with minor variant, Dehesh and Pugh (1995, 
		p.2583) have also show considerable evidence that cycles in property has 
		deep cause-consequence interdependency on the financial and credit 
		cycles even at a global scale. They further argue that such structural 
		change resulting from changes in the financial sector requirements may 
		occur contemporaneously with and interact with the fluctuations in both 
		the macroeconomy and the credit markets, thereby heightening inflation, 
		causing financial collapse and leading to recession in the property 
		sectors.  
		Previous studies linking property to the economy over time, however, 
		fall principally into two distinct categories: those that centre 
		explicitly on property- backed securities such as real estate investment 
		trusts (Hartzell et al., 1987; Chan et al., 1990; McCue and Kling, 1994; 
		Brooks and Tsolacos, 1999; Ling and Naranjo, 1997; Ling and Naranjo, 
		2003) as against those on direct property market variables, as diverse 
		as construction series and rents ( Kling and McCue, 1987 ; Kling and 
		McCue, 1991 ; Giussani, et al., 1992). Table 1 summarizes previous 
		empirical research linking property with the economy. These empirical 
		investigations are preponderant in the USA with most employing vector 
		autoregressive framework as their methodology and few using regression 
		analysis.  
		Within the first category, Chan et al. (1990) for instance examine 
		the connection between some pre-specified macroeconomic variables and 
		real estate returns from the stock market using regression analysis. 
		They find that changes in risk, unexpected inflation and term structure 
		are significant predictors; while changes in industrial production and 
		expected inflation have no significant influence on real estate returns. 
		McCue and Kling (1994) however extend the examination of the link 
		between property and the economy in another direction. They treat real 
		estate returns as a residual by controlling for the covariance between 
		equity REIT returns and the overall stock market resulting from industry 
		effects. In their analysis, the authors employ vector autoregressive 
		model to test the relationships between this real estate residual and 
		macroeconomic variables and conclude that macroeconomic variables 
		account for 60% variance in real estate returns.  
		Brooks and Tsolacos (1999) take a similar approach to McCue and Kling 
		(1994) study by also removing the impact of the general stock market on 
		equity REIT series but using UK dataset. They suggest that unexpected 
		inflation and term structure have a contemporaneous rather than a lagged 
		effect on property returns. The absence of lagged effect however implies 
		that changes in unexpected inflation and term structure are quickly 
		incorporated into property returns. The authors further contend that 
		property returns are explained by own lagged values: current property 
		returns may have predictive power for future property returns. They 
		hypothesise that this own lagged effect is partly due to the fact that 
		property returns may reflect property market influences (rents, yield 
		and vacancy rates) rather than macroeconomic variables and partly 
		because macroeconomic and property data are not in a direct measurable 
		form.  
		A departure from the above categorization is the studies by Kling and 
		McCue (1987) and Kling and McCue (1991) who focus on property market 
		indicator. They advocate the use of construction series from direct real 
		estate investment and employ vector autoregressions to model industrial 
		and office construction cycles. They find that macroeconomic variables 
		influence real estate series indirectly through other macroeconomic 
		variables. The authors also show that adjustment to macroeconomic shocks 
		take place with a lag, resulting from the existence of long production 
		period between new construction starts and completions.  
		Giussani et al. (1992) also examine the relationship between changes 
		in commercial rental values and fluctuations in economy activity using a 
		predictive model. They analyse monthly data from 1983 to 1991 from 
		Europe and find that real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most 
		significant explanatory variable for rental values. This result is 
		consistent with those reported in Hetherington (1988) and Keogh (1994) 
		that GDP is a determinant of rents, to the extent that rents are closely 
		correlated with the business cycle.  
		Table 1. Classification of Studies Linking Property with the 
		Economy. 
		
			
				Author/Year 
				of Publication | 
				Study area | 
				Data type | 
				*Methodology | 
				Significant 
				variables | 
			 
			
				| Hoag (1980) | 
				USA | 
				Property specific variables, national 
				and regional economic factors. | 
				Regression Analysis. | 
				Property specific variables, national 
				and regional economic factors. | 
			 
			
				| Hartzell et al. (1987) | 
				USA | 
				Appraised values from real estate 
				fund. | 
				VAR | 
				Expected and unexpected inflation. | 
			 
			
				| Chan et al. (1990) | 
				USA | 
				REITs and some pre-specified 
				macroeconomic variables | 
				Regression Analysis | 
				Risk, unexpected inflation and term 
				structure. | 
			 
			
				| Kling and McCue (1991, 
				1987) | 
				USA | 
				Construction series from direct real 
				estate assets. | 
				VAR | 
				Output, nominal interest rates, money 
				supply and employment. 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Giussani, et al. (1992)
				 | 
				Europe | 
				Rental values and macroeconomic 
				variables. | 
				Regression Analysis | 
				GDP | 
			 
			
				| McCue and Kling (1994) | 
				USA | 
				REITs adjusted for stock influences 
				and macroeconomic variables. | 
				VAR | 
				Nominal interest rates, price, output 
				and investment. | 
			 
			
				| Lizieri and Satchell 
				(1997a) | 
				USA | 
				REITs returns and equity returns 
				adjusted for property influences. | 
				VAR | 
				Lagged values of the equity returns. | 
			 
			
				| Lizieri and Satchell 
				(1997b) | 
				USA | 
				REITs returns and real interest rates. | 
				VAR | 
				Real interest rates. | 
			 
			
				| Ling and Naranjo (1997) | 
				USA | 
				REITs returns and macroeconomic 
				variables. | 
				VAR | 
				Term structure, unexpected inflation, 
				real treasury bill rate and growth in real capital consumption. | 
			 
			
				| Brooks and Tsolacos (1999) | 
				UK | 
				REITs adjusting for stock influences 
				and macroeconomic variables | 
				VAR | 
				Unexpected inflation, term structure 
				of interest rate. | 
			 
			
				| Ling and Naranjo (2003) | 
				USA | 
				Capital flows in present and past 
				REITs returns and macroeconomic variables  | 
				VAR | 
				Present and lagged REITs returns. | 
			 
			
				| Joshi (2006) | 
				India | 
				Housing share prices and interest 
				rates and credit.  | 
				VAR | 
				Interest rates and credit growth. | 
			 
			
				Vishwakarim 
				and French (2010) | 
				India | 
				REITs and macroeconomic variables. | 
				VAR | 
				Term structure of interest rate. | 
			 
			
				| Ojetunde, Popoola and 
				Kemiki (2011) | 
				Nigeria | 
				Direct Property returns and 
				Macroeconomic variables | 
				VAR | 
				GDP, Exchange rate, inflation and 
				interest rates | 
			 
		 
		By using non- food credit as proxy for housing price in India, Joshi 
		(2006) employs a structural vector autoregressive model for the period 
		2001 to 2005 and asserts that both credit growth and interest rate 
		influence the housing market and stabilize other sectors of the economy. 
		Vishwakarim and French (2010) also examine the influence of 
		macroeconomic variables on the India real estate sector between 1996 and 
		2007. Using a structural break, they conclude that macro economic 
		variables explain 10% of the variation in the real estate market between 
		1996 and 2000 with such variation increasing to 23% between 2000 and 
		2007.  
		In Nigeria, Ojetunde et al. (2011) estimated a vector autoregressive 
		model and suggest that macroeconomic shocks explain 28% of the variation 
		in residential property rents. They further hypothesized that, responses 
		of residential property rents to shocks in real GDP, exchange rates and 
		short-term interest rates reflect the fact that rents from direct 
		residential property and by extension, the market for residential 
		property adjust slowly to changes in macroeconomic events. Their study 
		however did not establish the presence of long run equilibrium between 
		the Nigerian macroeconomy and its property market. This is one of the 
		focal point of this research. 
		3. THE DATA  
		The data were extracted from two distinct sources namely: the 
		registered Estate Surveying and Valuation firms and the National Bureau 
		of Statistics (NBS). The aggregation of residential rental price data 
		was supplied by registered estate surveying and valuationfirms based on 
		available letting evidence in most parts of Nigeria. National economic 
		data as varied as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in real terms, short-term 
		interest rates, inflation and exchange rateswere provided by National 
		Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Theirinclusion in the final analysis was 
		premised on the assumption that trend in real estate returns is 
		correlated with happenings within the real and credit economy. The 
		sampledata in annual frequency covers the period 1984 to 2011 with a 
		total of 28 observations. Table 2 reportsa summary of the descriptive 
		statistics of the data sample.  
		Table 2. Summary of Descriptive Statistics of Variables. 
		
			
				| Variable Name | 
				Description | 
				Mean | 
				Std. Dev. | 
				Min. | 
				Max. | 
			 
			
				| RESDRENT  | 
				Nominal residential property rents  
				in Nigerian currency (Naira) | 
				53299 | 
				61698.53 | 
				700 | 
				182022 | 
			 
			
				| INFLATN | 
				Inflation rates (%) | 
				22.05 | 
				18.22 | 
				5.4 | 
				72.8 | 
			 
			
				| EXCHAG  | 
				Exchange rates of Nigerian currency (Naira)to U$1 | 
				66.45 | 
				60.75 | 
				0.7649 | 
				153.89 | 
			 
			
				| INTEREST | 
				Short term -Interest rates (%) | 
				18.54 | 
				4.55 | 
				9.25 | 
				29.08 | 
			 
			
				| GDP | 
				Gross Domestic Product  
				in real terms (expressed in Millions  
				of Naira) | 
				446974 | 
				177712 | 
				227255 | 
				885273 | 
			 
		 
		4. METHODOLOGY  
		The methodology consists of four different approaches: pairwise 
		correlation between the variables, Cointegration test, Granger causality 
		tests(block exogeneity wald tests), and Vector autoregression (VAR). 
		Cointegration and granger causality tests are within the vector 
		autoregression framework employed in this research. The pairwise 
		correlation examines the correlation between the residential rent and 
		marco economic variables. A vector autoregressive (VAR) framework was 
		employed for the period 1984 to 2011 in order to investigate the 
		relationship between residential property market (using RESDRENT as 
		proxy) and macroeconomic variables (INFLATN, EXCHAG, INTEREST, GDP). A 
		vector autoregressive model is a systems regression model in which the 
		variance or current values of the dependent variables can be explained 
		in terms of the different combinations of their own lagged values and 
		the lagged values of other variables as well as their uncorrelated error 
		terms.  
		The reduced form of the estimated VAR model is expressed as: 
		  
		
		Where   = 
		(RESDRENT, INFLATN, EXCHAG, INTEREST, GDP) is a vector of variables 
		determined by k lags of all variables in the system,
		 is a 5 × 1 vector 
		of the stochastic error terms (impulses or innovations or shocks),
		 is a 5 × 1 vector 
		of constant term coefficients,
		 are 5 × 5 matrices 
		of coefficients on the ithlag of Y, while k represents the number of 
		lags of each variable in each equation. Equation (1) which is a vector 
		of 5 variables postulates for instance, that current RESDRENT is related 
		to its own lag or past values, as well as the lag of the other four 
		variables (INFLATN, EXCHAG, INTEREST, GDP). In other words, the 
		information relevant to the prediction of the respective variables is 
		contained exclusively in the time series data of these variables (Koop, 
		2000; Diebold, 2001; Gujarati, 2003). Following Lutkepohl (1991) 
		information criteria technique was used to determine the appropriate 
		length of the distributed lag. The values of multivariate versions of 
		the information criteria are constructed for 0, 1,…..k lags (in this 
		case, a maximum of 2) as seen in table 3 with the objective of choosing 
		the number of lags that minimise the value of the five information 
		criteria. 
		Table3. VAR Lag Order Selection Criteria 
		
			
				| Lag | 
				LogL | 
				LR | 
				FPE | 
				AIC | 
				SC | 
				HQ | 
			 
			
				| 0 | 
				-945.6704 | 
				NA  | 
				3.95e+25 | 
				73.12850 | 
				73.37044 | 
				73.19817 | 
			 
			
				| 1 | 
				-841.9993 | 
				159.4941* | 
				9.71e+22 | 
				67.07687 | 
				68.52852* | 
				67.49489 | 
			 
			
				| 2 | 
				-809.6437 | 
				37.33328 | 
				7.02e+22* | 
				66.51106* | 
				69.17242 | 
				67.27743* | 
			 
		 
		
		*indicates lag order selection by criterion. Where LR denotes: 
		sequential modified LR test statistic (each test at 5%level); FPE: Final 
		prediction error; AIC: Akaike information criterion; SC: Schwarz 
		information criterion and HQ: Hannan-Quinn information criterion. While 
		LogL is thelog likelihood function. Analysis of this magnitude presumes 
		the presence of stationary within the data series(Brooks, 2008).The 
		examination of the inverse roots of the autoregressive polynomial 
		(fig.2)however reveals that the absence of non- stationary in all VAR 
		variables, since none of the roots has a modulus greater than one and 
		none lies outside the unit circle. 
		  
		Fig.2: Inverse roots of the Autoregressive Polynomial. Johansen (1988) 
		cointegration test is applied to the VAR variables to test the 
		assumption that the five variables are bound by some long run phenomena, 
		though the variables might deviate from their short run relationship. 
		The trace and max tests for cointegration under the Johansen approach 
		show whether the null hypothesis of no cointegration vectors should be 
		rejected. 
		Ganger casuality tests were also applied to the estimated VAR 
		coefficients to determine the critical values of the block exogeneity 
		wald tests of the null hypothesis, that collectively the coefficients of 
		all the lags of a particular variable are simultaneously zero. The 
		rejection of the null hypothesis on the basis of the block exogeneity 
		tests suggests the variable(s) in the model which impact significantly 
		on the future values of each of the variables in the system. However, 
		causality tests only reveal the association among the variables and not 
		whether variance or change in value of a particular variable has a 
		positive or negative effect on other variables in the VAR system. 
		Therefore variance decomposition and impulse response function (IRF) 
		were estimated to examine the strength of such relationships within the 
		VAR system.  
		The estimated variance decomposition of RESDRENT, is the proportion 
		of the variance in RESDRENT that can be explained by its own shocks and 
		shocks to other variables. The forecast error variance (S.E) for an four 
		(4) period forecast horizon within the estimated variance decomposition 
		determines the proportion of RESDRENT for current and future periods (1, 
		2,3 and 4) which is accounted for by innovations to INFLATN, EXCHAG, 
		INTEREST and GDP. It is expected that the total percentage of the 
		forecast variance due to all innovations for each period sum up to 100. 
		Impulse response function (IRF) is further generated for the estimated 
		coefficients matrices in VAR model. The impulse response function traces 
		out the response of RESDRENT in the VAR system to shocks in the error 
		terms  in equation 
		(1) to the extent that, if
		 in the RESDRENT 
		equation increases by one standard deviation, such change or shock will 
		change RESDRENT in the current and future periods.  
		5. RESULTS  
		The pairwise correlations in Table 4 show two important results. 
		First,residential property rents are strongly and positively correlated 
		with real GDP and exchange rates fluctuations in Nigeria. Secondly, 
		there are negative but weak correlations between residential property 
		rents and short–term interest rates as well as between residential 
		property rents and inflation rates. These results though a working 
		hypothesis, are later confirmed in the Variance decomposition within the 
		VAR framework later in this section. 
		Table 4. Pairwise Correlations of Variables at Zero Lag. 
		
			
				| Pairwise correlations at zero lag | 
			 
			
				|   | 
				GDP | 
				INFLATN | 
				EXCHAG | 
				INTEREST | 
				RESDRENT | 
			 
			
				| GDP | 
				1 | 
				  | 
				  | 
				  | 
				  | 
			 
			
				| INFLATN | 
				-0.31 | 
				1 | 
				  | 
				  | 
				  | 
			 
			
				| EXCHAG | 
				0.85 | 
				-0.38 | 
				1 | 
				  | 
				  | 
			 
			
				| INTEREST | 
				-0.04 | 
				0.30 | 
				-0.02 | 
				1 | 
				  | 
			 
			
				| RESDRENT | 
				0.91 | 
				-0.34 | 
				0.91 | 
				-0.15 | 
				1 | 
			 
		 
		The Johansen cointegration test in Table 5shows the eigen value, 
		statistic, critical value and probability value at 5% level of 
		significance. By examining the trace test within the first two panels of 
		the table, null hypothesis of four cointegrating vectors at 5% level is 
		rejected as the trace statistics are greater than the critical values. 
		The max test shown in the other panel confirms this result.  
		On the basis of the granger causality test, it can be seen that with 
		the exception of inflation other macro economic variables forecast 
		RESDRENT. In this case all the lag coefficients of each of the 
		macroeconomic variables are statistically significant (p-values are less 
		than 5%) in the residential property rent equation, as indicated in the 
		last panel of table 6.  
		As a corollary, granger causality tests also show that while both the 
		short -term interest rates and exchange rates have significant effects 
		in the residential property rents, there is evidently ‘no reverse 
		significant’ of residential property rents on these two macroeconomic 
		variables ( their P Value are 0.2677 and 0.2838 respectively). These 
		results suggest that these two macroeconomic variables (short-term 
		interest rate and exchange rate) ‘granger cause’ residential property 
		rents and that these two macroeconomic variables have useful information 
		for predicting residential property rents over and above the past values 
		of other macroeconomic variables in the VAR model.  
		Table 5: Johansen Cointegration test for VAR Varaibles between 1984 - 
		2011 
		
			
				Unrestricted Cointegration Rank Test (Trace) 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Hypothesized | 
				  | 
				Trace | 
				0.05 | 
				  | 
			 
			
				No. of CE(s) 
				  | 
				Eigenvalue 
				 | 
				Statistic | 
				Critical Value | 
				Prob.** | 
			 
			
				| None * | 
				0.907094 | 
				134.6947 | 
				69.81889 | 
				0.0000 | 
			 
			
				| At most 1 * | 
				0.706700 | 
				75.29040 | 
				47.85613 | 
				0.0000 | 
			 
			
				| At most 2 * | 
				0.622274 | 
				44.62641 | 
				29.79707 | 
				0.0005 | 
			 
			
				| At most 3 * | 
				0.527889 | 
				20.28673 | 
				15.49471 | 
				0.0088 | 
			 
			
				At most 4 
				  | 
				0.059109 
				  | 
				1.523204 
				  | 
				3.841466 
				  | 
				0.2171 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Trace test indicates 4 cointegrating eqn(s) at 
				the 0.05 level | 
			 
			
				| * denotes rejection of the hypothesis at the 
				0.05 level | 
			 
			
				**MacKinnon-Haug-Michelis (1999) p-values 
				  | 
			 
			
				Unrestricted Cointegration Rank Test (Maximum 
				Eigenvalue) 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Hypothesized | 
				  | 
				Max-Eigen | 
				0.05 | 
				  | 
			 
			
				| No. of CE(s) | 
				Eigenvalue 
				 | 
				Statistic | 
				Critical Value | 
				Prob.** | 
			 
			
				| None * | 
				0.907094 | 
				59.40431 | 
				33.87687 | 
				0.0000 | 
			 
			
				| At most 1 * | 
				0.706700 | 
				30.66399 | 
				27.58434 | 
				0.0195 | 
			 
			
				| At most 2 * | 
				0.622274 | 
				24.33968 | 
				21.13162 | 
				0.0171 | 
			 
			
				| At most 3 * | 
				0.527889 | 
				18.76353 | 
				14.26460 | 
				0.0091 | 
			 
			
				At most 4 
				  | 
				0.059109 
				  | 
				1.523204 
				  | 
				3.841466 
				  | 
				0.2171 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Max-eigenvalue test indicates 4 cointegrating 
				eqn(s) at the 0.05 level | 
			 
			
				| * denotes rejection of the hypothesis at the 
				0.05 level | 
			 
			
				| **MacKinnon-Haug-Michelis (1999) p-values | 
			 
		 
		
		Table 6: Granger Causality/ Block Exegeneity Wald Tests 
			
				Dependent variable: EXCHAG 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Excluded | 
				Chi-sq | 
				df | 
				Prob. | 
			 
			
				| GDP | 
				2.372984 | 
				2 | 
				0.3053 | 
			 
			
				| INFLATN | 
				1.762238 | 
				2 | 
				0.4143 | 
			 
			
				| INTEREST | 
				1.794556 | 
				2 | 
				0.4077 | 
			 
			
				RESDRENT  
				  | 
				2.518923  
				  | 
				2 
				  | 
				0.2838 
				  | 
			 
			
				All 
				  | 
				6.178470 
				  | 
				8 
				  | 
				0.6272 
				  | 
			 
			
				Dependent variable: GDP 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Excluded | 
				Chi-sq | 
				df | 
				Prob. | 
			 
			
				| GDP | 
				0.733207 | 
				2 | 
				0.6931 | 
			 
			
				| INFLATN | 
				0.440865  | 
				2 | 
				0.8022 | 
			 
			
				| INTEREST | 
				2.984277 | 
				2 | 
				0.2249 | 
			 
			
				RESDRENT  
				  | 
				8.576370 
				  | 
				2 
				  | 
				0.0137  
				  | 
			 
			
				All 
				  | 
				17.26949  
				  | 
				8 
				  | 
				0.0274 
				  | 
			 
			
				Dependent variable: INFLATN 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Excluded | 
				Chi-sq | 
				df | 
				Prob. | 
			 
			
				| GDP | 
				0.365033 | 
				2 | 
				0.8332 | 
			 
			
				| INFLATN | 
				0.603316 | 
				2 | 
				0.7396 | 
			 
			
				| INTEREST | 
				0.674100 | 
				2 | 
				0.7139 | 
			 
			
				RESDRENT  
				  | 
				0.162122  
				  | 
				2 
				  | 
				0.9221  | 
			 
			
				All 
				  | 
				4.899009 
				  | 
				8 
				  | 
				0.7683 
				  | 
			 
			
				Dependent variable: INTEREST 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Excluded | 
				Chi-sq | 
				df | 
				Prob. | 
			 
			
				| GDP | 
				0.835167 | 
				2 | 
				0.6586 | 
			 
			
				| INFLATN | 
				2.085102 | 
				2 | 
				0.3526 | 
			 
			
				| INTEREST | 
				9.443655 | 
				2 | 
				0.0089 | 
			 
			
				RESDRENT  
				  | 
				2.635744  
				  | 
				2 
				  | 
				0.2677 
				  | 
			 
			
				All 
				  | 
				16.15057 
				  | 
				8 
				  | 
				0.0403 
				  | 
			 
			
				| Dependent variable: RESDRENT | 
			 
			
				| Excluded | 
				Chi-sq | 
				df | 
				Prob. | 
			 
			
				| GDP | 
				8.923314 | 
				2 | 
				0.0115 | 
			 
			
				| INFLATN | 
				33.35944 | 
				2 | 
				0.0000 | 
			 
			
				| INTEREST | 
				3.570942 | 
				2 | 
				0.1677 | 
			 
			
				RESDRENT  
				  | 
				10.34877 | 
				2 
				  | 
				0.0057 
				  | 
			 
			
				All 
				  | 
				46.27143 
				  | 
				8 
				  | 
				0.0000 
				  | 
			 
		 
		Again, residential property rents and real GDP which are both 
		significant imply the existence of feedback relationship between real 
		GDP and residential property rents. The variance decomposition of 
		residential rents to shocks or innovations in macroeconomic variables in 
		Table 7 further confirms this result as it shows the contribution of 
		each macroeconomic shock to residential property rents.  
		Table 7: Variance Decompositions for Residential Property Rent 
		
			
				| 
				 
				Period  | 
				FORECAST ERROR VARIANCE (S.E) | 
				EXCHAG | 
				GDP  | 
				INFLATN | 
				INTEREST | 
				RESDRENT | 
			 
			
				|   | 
				  | 
				  | 
				  | 
				  | 
				  | 
				  | 
			 
			
				| 1 | 
				15.19901 | 
				0.000000 | 
				0.000000 | 
				0.000000 | 
				0.000000 | 
				100.0000 | 
			 
			
				| 2 | 
				22.19551 | 
				6.951051 | 
				18.91081 | 
				0.023707 | 
				0.001505 | 
				74.11293 | 
			 
			
				| 3 | 
				28.63879 | 
				9.285895 | 
				18.61029 | 
				0.087174 | 
				0.205616 | 
				71.81102 | 
			 
			
				| 4 | 
				34.27057 | 
				14.10323 | 
				17.31054 | 
				0.485487 | 
				0.360693 | 
				67.74005 | 
			 
		 
		Cholesky ordering: RESDRENT INFLATN EXCHAG INTEREST GDP.  
		The forecast error variance (S.E) for four (4) years shows that real 
		GPD and Exchange ratetogether forecast 31.4% of the variance in 
		residential property rents. This result is consistent with those 
		reported in earlier studies byKeogh (1994) that GDP predicts the pattern 
		of rents and the findings of McCue and Kling, (1987); Kling and McCue, 
		(1994) that short- term interest rates contributes to the variation in 
		property returns performance. Finally, the Impulse Response Function 
		(IRF) as depicted in fig. 3shows that shocks to short-term interest 
		rates have a negative significant impact on residential property rents, 
		with the shocks getting a bit pronounced afterperiod two. Shocks or 
		innovations in inflation is negative but not significant and the shocks 
		die away instantly even at year zero. Increase in real GDP and exchange 
		rates have significant positive effects on residential rents. In this 
		case, rents appear to settle down quickly to a steady rising state after 
		period onedue to shocks of exchange rate and in the second period year 
		to shocks of real GDP. 
		 
		 
		6. CONCLUSIONS  
		Revisiting the interaction between the Nigerian property market and 
		the macroeconomy has further confirmed that the use of econometric 
		analysis rather adhoc methodologies purged with simple trend 
		interpolations is plausible. Since residential property rent is a 
		significant feature of most property market in the world, empirical 
		evidence based on this study from Nigeria implies that exogenous 
		influences of the economy (real GDP and Exchange rate) account for 31.4% 
		of the variation within the residential property market. At a 
		disaggregate level, real GDP accounts for a substantial proportion 
		(17.3%) of this variation in the residential property market, while 
		exchange rate account for the remaining 14.1% of these residential 
		property market variance. In addition the feedback mechanism between GDP 
		and residential property rents, means that these two variables are 
		determined contemporaneously and by implication depicts a somewhat 
		limited integration of the Nigerian residential property market with the 
		economy. The one to two period(s) response shocks of interest rate, real 
		GDP, and exchange rate show a relatively slow adjustment of the market 
		to the ever changing macroeconomic events in Nigeria. Such responses are 
		exogenous and make long run equilibrium within the residential property 
		market almost elusive. The existence of such analysis of this nature 
		will in the end aid useful property market analysis in a market fraught 
		with poor property market data. 
		  
		Fig.3. Responses of Residential Property Rent to Shocks in 
		MacroeconomicVariables. 
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		CONTACT  
		Ismail Ojetunde 
		Federal University of Technology, Minna. Nigeria 
		P. M. B. 65 Minna, Niger State of Nigeria 
		Minna 
		NIGERIA 
		Tel: + 2347033780000 
		Email: 
		i.ojetunde@futminna.edu.ng,
		ismajet2003@yahoo.com  
		
		 
		
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