The quantile effects of retrofitting policies on rental price appreciation among student housing in Ghana
Williams Miller Appau, Elvis Attakora-Amaniampong, Andrews TagoePurpose
Despite global evidence of retrofitting effects on building performance, there is a key research gap: the impact of retrofitting policies on rental price appreciation in the student housing rental market. This study aims to examine the quantile effects of retrofitting on rental values across on-campus student housing retrofitting in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted a quantitative research design, combining an experimental block design, a repeated sales model and simultaneous quantile regression. The study measured rental appreciation from the 10th to 90th quantile to determine the distributional effects across 212 on-campus student housing in Ghana.
Findings
The findings suggest that retrofitting does not have a significant impact on rental appreciation in the lower and median segments of the student housing rental market. However, retrofitting policies have a strong positive effect at the 90th percentile. This distributional asymmetry implies that, the benefits of retrofit are concentrated in higher on-campus accommodation while the lower and middle market segments remain largely unaffected.
Practical implications
Student accommodation investors should consider overall housing quality, service reliability and tenant satisfaction, as well as retrofitting, to enjoy guaranteed rental appreciation. This is more effective in higher-value student accommodation.
Originality/value
The application of quantile regression to examine the benefits of retrofitting in student accommodation reveals heterogeneous effects across on-campus student housing within the African context.