Understanding Cross-border Investment Dynamics in the Housing Sector

Authors

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.

Abstract

This paper explores and tries to explain the transnational investment behavior of Tabriz citizens in the foreign countries' residential sectors. The main focus of this study is to investigate the motivations, strategies, and outcomes linked to such cross-border investments. The research design adopted for this study is qualitative, based on the grounded theory approach. Using in-depth interviews with 18 cross-border investors from Tabriz and data analysis based on Strauss and Corbin's approach, some open, focused, and selective codes were extracted. Based on the research findings, it is observed that economic insecurity, preservation of asset value, government incentives, and successful experiences of migrants and political-social changes are among the causal conditions. Yet, the variables incorporated in the contextual factors are legal environments of host country, information availability, cultural contact and social networks. Whereas, the fluctuating currency, changing exchange rate, competition between investors, and psychic effects are recognized to be intervening variables. All these factors collectively are considered as main driving forces for cross-boundary investments of the people in the real estate sector . Contrarily, the research findings indicate that such strategies of acceptance and resistance by the citizens have led to reduced domestic investment and increased dependence on foreign markets through the results of cross-border investment activities over the past years. The happening has also contributed towards uneven distribution of wealth, migration and family system changes, as well as breakdown of social cohesion. The effects of such investments also include the loss of national identity, changes in values and beliefs, and the discovery of new social networks. The inference from this research is that while Iranians' cross-border investment may yield short-term personal financial gains, it has very significant long-term costs regarding its adverse impact on the sustainable development and welfare of the Iranian society.

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References

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