Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
12-2019
Abstract
We use a large housing transaction data set in Singapore to study whether real estate agents use information advantages to buy houses at bargain prices. Agents bought their own houses at prices that are 2.54% lower than comparable houses bought by other buyers. Consistent with information asymmetries, agent buyers have more information advantages in less informative environments, and agent buyers are more likely to buy houses from agent sellers. Agent discounts are from both “cherry picking” and bargaining power, and bargaining power contributes more to the agent discounts. Agents’ advantage consists in their information of available houses and previous purchase prices.
Keywords
Bargaining power, Housing market, Information advantages, Market distortion, Real estate agents
Discipline
Finance | Finance and Financial Management | Real Estate
Research Areas
Finance
Publication
Journal of Financial Economics
Volume
134
Issue
3
First Page
715
Last Page
735
ISSN
0304-405X
Identifier
10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.05.008
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
AGARWAL, Sumit; HE, Jia; SING, Tien Foo; and SONG, Changcheng.
Do real estate agents have information advantages in housing markets?. (2019). Journal of Financial Economics. 134, (3), 715-735.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6379
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.05.008