The nexus between monetary policy and housing in Egypt and South Africa

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the effectiveness of monetary policy in boosting the housing sectors in each of Egypt and South Africa, and to detect the ability of the monetary agents of both nations to tame house prices.

Design/methodology/approach

An eight-variate two-stage structural vector autoregressive model compares the efficacy of monetary policy during the period from 1975 to 2010 in alleviating housing shortages in both nations.

Findings

The impact of monetary policy on the housing sector is not found to be uniformly effective. In economies with more developed mortgage markets, like South Africa, monetary agents can affect credit availability, provided that they react promptly to supply and demand shocks. In countries depending on off-plan sales, such as Egypt, monetary policy has a substantial impact on housing starts.

Originality/value

This paper adds to the economic development literature since it elucidates how monetary policy could be employed as an unconventional tool to alleviate housing shortages in developing nations.

Citation

Abdel-Baki, M. (2014), "The nexus between monetary policy and housing in Egypt and South Africa", African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 114-135. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJEMS-03-2011-0011