In the 2010s central bank interest rates were historically low, in some cases below 0. This may yet happen again in the future.

    Every piece of property has an expected income. To take the simplest, housing, we can think in terms of rent. To me, if I were to make a formula as to when it would make sense to buy properties with debt it would be:

    If Rent – interest – maintenance/overhead > 0 then buy. If for simplicity we assume overhead is 0, then we could just divide the rent by the interest rate to get the expected purchase cost.

    For example by this logic if interest is 10% and annual rent is 10,000, then you'd expect the purchase price to be 100,000. If interest is 1%, then the purchase price for the same rent would be 1,000,000. By this logic as interest approaches 0, then property prices would approach infinity.

    My question is

    A) is my model of property prices correct?

    B) why didn't prices go to infinity in negative interest jurisdictions in the 2010s?

    C) Is it true of all assets that their value is determined by interest rates?

    When interest rates are low, what prevents property prices from going to infinity?
    byu/DonQuigleone inAskEconomics



    Posted by DonQuigleone

    Leave A Reply
    Share via