How Do “Haun­ted” Hou­ses In­flu­en­ce Hou­sing Mar­kets and Sur­ro­un­ding As­sets?

How rational are markets in practice, and how much are prices shaped by narratives, psychology and social perceptions?

These questions are at the centre of a new episode of the Danish podcast Rig på Viden, featuring Kasper Meisner Nielsen, Academic Director at the Center for Corporate Governance and professor at Copenhagen Business School.

In the episode, Kasper Meisner Nielsen discusses research on spillover effects and price formation in housing markets, based on a study using housing market data from Hong Kong. The research examines how so-called “haunted” properties can influence the prices of neighbouring homes, offering a unique perspective on how social beliefs and behavioural responses affect market outcomes.

While the phenomenon itself may appear unusual, the study addresses broader questions highly relevant to economics, finance and corporate decision-making: How do stories and perceptions spread through markets? How rational are prices in practice? And how do psychological and social dynamics shape economic behaviour?

The housing market also provides a particularly interesting setting for studying these questions. For many households, property represents one of the largest assets in their portfolio and therefore affects a far broader share of the population than financial markets such as equities, where participation is less universal. Understanding how narratives and behavioural dynamics influence housing prices is therefore important not only from a research perspective, but also for understanding economic decision-making in society more broadly.

The conversation also explores how negative narratives can spill over into surrounding assets and what the findings reveal about inefficiencies in markets more generally.

The Rig på Viden episode is available in Danish and can be listened to here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7dazqPTGuJDHqbCtpynYx9?si=eb31a72c0afb4887