Construction of real estate price indices for developing housing markets : Does temporal aggregation matter?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test whether temporal aggregation matters when constructing hedonic house price indices for developing markets using Ghana as a case study. Design/methodology/approach Monthly, quarterly, semi-yearly and yearly hedonic price indices are constructed and six null hypotheses are tested using the F-ratios to examine the temporal aggregation effect. Findings The results show that temporal aggregation may not be a serious issue when constructing hedonic house price indices for developing markets as a result of the smaller sample size which these markets normally have. At even 10 per cent significance level, none of the F-ratios estimated is statistically significant. Analysis of the mean returns and volatilities reveal that indices constructed at the lower level of temporal aggregation are very volatile, suggesting that the volume of transactions can affect the level of temporal aggregation, and so, the temporal aggregation level should not be generalised, as is currently observed in the literature. Originality/value The diversification importance of real estate and the introduction of real estate derivatives and home equity insurance as financial products call for the construction of robust and accurate real estate indices in all markets. While almost all empirical research recommends real estate price indices to be conducted at the lower level of temporal aggregation, these studies are largely conducted in developed markets where transactions take place frequently and large transaction databases exist. Unfortunately, little is known about the importance of temporal aggregation effect when constructing indices for developing real estate markets. This paper contributes to fill these gaps.