Is the Rent Too High? Land Ownership and Monopoly Power

Rental Markets
Markups
Monopoly Power
Housing Demand
Zoning
Is it?
Authors

C. Luke Watson

Oren Ziv

Published

February 1, 2025

Abstract

Pricing power in real estate markets can reduce housing supply and redevelopment relative to the social optimum. We show how popular redevelopment subsidies and zoning regulations interact with pricing power. Using building-level rental income data from NYC, we find that increasing concentration is correlated with increasing prices.Finally, we use the model to estimate the first building-level housing elasticity, finding that markups account for between ten and thirty percent of rents in the city.

BibTeX citation

@techreport{watson_istherenttoohigh:2025,
    Author = {Watson, C. Luke and Ziv, Oren},
    Month = {1},
    Title = {Is the Rent Too High? Land Ownership and Monopoly Power},
    Type = {Manuscript},
    Year = {2025}}