Financial lessons from the long history of housing markets

This dissertation takes you on a journey through the history of the housing market. Inspired by relevant housing market issues, the researcher has dived into the archives, in particular those of Paris and Amsterdam, to look for data and research settings that can help to better identify the current problems in the housing market. Based on a huge collection of data on housing prices, rental contracts and investment portfolios from the past 500 years, this thesis documents new facts about the long-term development of the housing market and uses unique historical settings to answer questions that cannot be answered with modern data. The different chapters in the thesis deal with themes such as rent affordability, the emergence of investors and their investment returns, the impact of ageing on house prices and the impact of pandemics on the housing market. All in all, it is evident there are important lessons to be learned from the past for today's housing market.