An Insight of Land Speculation

This paper discusses the issues related to land speculation, its impact on housing prices, and provides cases and examples. It highlights the factors that give rise to speculative activities and concludes that such activities can lead to destruction of the economy. The paper also emphasizes the need for in-depth research before involving in speculation.

Running Head: An insight of Land Speculation
An Insight of Land
Speculation

An insight of Land Speculation 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Issues relating to land speculation on land supply.....................................................................2
Land speculation and its impact on housing prices....................................................................4
Cases and Examples...................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................7

An insight of Land Speculation 2
Introduction
Speculation generally means an investment with an exceptionally high risk. The
desire to make profit through resale of land is one of the financial activities involved in
purchase of real estate with the hope that as the price raises the possibility of returns will
increase. Speculation is basically called as real estate activity as land is one asset that gets
appreciated in value (Swyler, 2015).
This happens due to lot of factors like supply and demand forces, the inflation’s
behaviour, the rates charged by the bank, the nearby development of infrastructure like malls,
schools, cafeterias, airports and a lot more. Land speculation critically involves purchase of
real estate that may decrease the value. Early history of United States often reflects a wide
scope of land speculation. The lands were available in bulk and speculators purchased parcels
with an intention of suppressing them from market. This activity could either spike the prices
or create detrimental effect. In this paper proper study is carried on the impacts on housing
prices and land supply.
Issues relating to land speculation on land supply
The issues of land speculation are equally different from prevailing speculation
techniques.
 The central exchanges are used for speculating in commodity and stocks. The
possible negative effects can be avoided if a person owns or manufactures the
physical commodities through various schemes. For example the sudden shift in the
price, hedging, coated markets which are given by other speculators and enables them
to protect themselves.

An insight of Land Speculation 3
 The swing in the prices can be ridden through long term investors. These long term
investors take advantage of buying periodically which means buying more when the
prices are low. Land on the contrary is divergent due to the location at which it is
situated at and sold as a separate property. Indirectly real-estate investment trust REIT
can provide security of land on behalf of shares in stock exchange (Du & Peiser,
2014).
 The capitalisation of goods and how its value generally depends upon the external
infrastructure and surroundings. Water sewage, streets, public parks, schools, all
elevates the demand of land and its value. The anticipation of the next infrastructure
which the government is going to lay is profitable for the speculators. They can reap
the rents subsequently (Centre, 2015). Moreover the owner implies certain
legislations as well as adjusts certain expenses for themselves. This way they seek
rents from the public in the form of rent on land and economic rent using active rent
policies.
 One of the important features of land is its relevance in the economy. Commodities
like stocks, metals, precious metals have only minor effects on the potential markets.
This is where speculation enters and converts the effects cumulatively. The
speculators wait for the price to get fixed and explore the chances, perhaps giving a
push to external factors and drivers of the market for swifter change.
 Land as an asset is a key factor of production in the economy. The investment made
by the construction business equals to about more than a quarter and apart from that
furniture, modular kitchen along with electrical appliances and office equipment are
just complimentary to new buildings of hotels, offices. The impact on economy can
be substantial if the construction takes a slow pace and the new services provided by
the infrastructure industry is questionable.

An insight of Land Speculation 4
 Other perspective of land market is the cost of the borrowings and its relations and
alliances with banks and responsiveness to the interest rates decided by the banks.
There are certain options available like derivatives which are categorised into the
future contracts; the asset is controlled by the speculators so many times in terms of
the equity or margin. Under this situation the speculator neither borrows the funds nor
pays the interest.
 The next issue is the supply is fixed or in other words the three dimensional space
which is accessible within the market or under the government norms and jurisdiction
the quantity is generally fixed. The spaces are generally contracted due to buildings in
accumulating the space already given earlier. Further the water content fails to create.
On the other hand the commodity like grain can procure large supply and the
unsheathing of raw materials can elevate the prices against the costs. The land is very
reactive to the prices and changes in the demand (Archer, 2013).
Land speculation and its impact on housing prices
Housing which is a basic necessity is hindered by the speculation activities. These
activities generally point the scale in favour of supply and demand of house and the land
becomes futile. The escalation in the cost of the land makes supply heavy as the buyers are
conscious in buying such properties. The land speculation occurs when the land is acquired
by the investors with zero intention of investment (Butler, 2016). The investors tend to wait
for the right period and the right cost of property once they are satisfied with the cost they
sale it again. This methodology of holding the property and selling it again makes the area
vacant for the normal people and the entire city had to stretch out.

An insight of Land Speculation 5
Cases and Examples
 The Hong Kong city was prone to speculation since early 1980’s and the activities let
the developers manipulate the buyers by giving attraction and incentives. The
demands rose and the city suffered from high vacant rates. Therefore, the government
introduces some policies to regulate the process of speculation. Reducing profits was
an attempt yet the prices slayed (Zhang, 2017).
 The bubble price to housing ration in Beijing was of the highest value in 2007 and
about 13.9% housing prices were due to speculation. The lack of funds and
investment was also a root cause of speculation (Du, Thill, Feng & Zhu, 2017).
 A range of crypto currencies last year led to a led to several speculative activities
amass in Australia. Approvals of the building rose to more than 42% in financial year
16-17. This resulted in fallout from jobs of employees in construction business at a
potentially increasing rate. An over inflated market of property collapsed the economy
of Australia (Gurran & Bramley, 2017).
 The land prices in rural areas has been gradually increased to 250% during 1987-
1991, as a result of this activity forest area in Thailand has been occupied illegally by
over 12 million people. The poor quality land was sold at heavy prices near highway
and roads to villagers leading to speculation. Many villagers became landless and few
of them want to clear their areas rather than giving the land as rent (Thaler & Anandi,
2017).
 African countries have recently attracted high speculative prices in the cases of
Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. Due to weak government regulations and land
operations in market the financial stability of the country was potentially threatened.
It created a sore impact in the urban areas as well (Mopogole & Kongela, 2016).

An insight of Land Speculation 6
Conclusion
Land market is associated with cases of speculation and there are certain factors
which give rise to these activities such as the elevation in prices of house, cryptic
information, and excessive acquisition of properties, fluctuating supply and demand, and non-
existence of laws and deficiency with regard to the implementation of laws regarding vacant
land development. Therefore, it can be concluded from the above report that the rise in the
speculative activities will only lead to destruction of the economy and all the financial
parameters will roll out. The recovery could be drastic and the company may also register
itself in debt paying situations. Also huge funds are required and an in-depth research to
involve into speculation. If the knowledge is minimal in that case real estate can create havoc.

An insight of Land Speculation 7
Bibliography
Archer, R. W. (2013). Land speculation and scattered development; failures in the urban-
fringe land market. Urban Studies, 10(3), 367-372.
Butler. J.J (2016). Successful Stock Speculation. (1 ed.). California: Create Space
Independent Publishing Platform.
Centre. M.H. (2015). Land Speculation, Town Site Development, and Newspapers. [online].
Retrieved from: http://treatiesmatter.org/relationships/business/land-speculation-
development-advertising
Du, J., & Peiser, R. B. (2014). Land supply, pricing and local governments' land hoarding in
China. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 48, 180-189.
Du. J. Thill, J. C., Feng, C. & Zhu, G. (2017). Land wealth generation and distribution in the
process of land expropriation and development in Beijing, China. Urban
Geography, 38(8), 1231-1251.
Gurran, N. & Bramley, G. (2017). Housing, Property Politics and Planning in Australia.
In Urban Planning and the Housing Market , 10, 259-290. Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Mopogole. M. & Kongela. S. (2016). In 23rd Annual European Real Estate Society
Conference. ERES: Conference. Vol. 23 Dealing with Speculative Prices in
Sub-Saharan African Land Markets: (pp. 1-5). Retrieved from
https://dx.doi.org/10.15396/eres2016_225
Swyler. E. (2015). The Book of Speculation: A Novel. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp.26-35

An insight of Land Speculation 8
Thaler, G. M., & Anandi, C. A. M. (2017). Shifting cultivation, contentious land change and
forest governance: the politics of swidden in East Kalimantan. The Journal of
Peasant Studies, 44(5), 1066-1087.
Zhang. R. J. (2017). A Tale of Two Cities: Comparative Study of Public Housing Policies of
Hong Kong and Singapore.