Changes in Risk Appreciation, and Short Memory of House Buyers When the Market is Hot, a Case Study of Christchurch, New Zealand

In this paper house prices in Christchurch are analyzed over three distinct periods of time: post-2011 earthquake, pre-COVID-19 lockdown, and post-COVID-19 lockdown using the well-established hedonic price model. Results show that buyers, in periods that are temporally distant from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, value the risk of potential earthquake damage to a property differently from buyers soon after the earthquake. We find that there are observable shifts in hedonic prices across the different time periods, specifically for section size pre and post COVID-19 lockdown.