The Teams:

Model Team

Model Development Team predominantly uses Python (software) in order to calibrate different economic models allowing us to analyse prices, demand, and supply of HMO properties in St Andrews. They develop models fit for the substitution and return of numbers which is extremely helpful in evaluating trends and helps us visualise the housing market’s response under several different circumstances.

Register Team

HMO Register Team uses several data analysis software like Python, R, and Strata to compute changes pre and post-cap on HMO Licences from Fife Council HMO Database. Their research also focuses on any trends triggered by this HMO freeze and whether the cap has reduced the number of HMOs being issued. They are an integral part of this team, allowing us to quantify the impact of the HMO licence freeze and explain it in numbers instead of empirical statements.

Survey Team

The Survey Team has recently released a student survey to evaluate student rents and choices which will help us further understand the impact of these caps. Generally, the team works on creating, approving, sending, and analysing surveys, which is crucial for this project.

Outreach Team

Team Outreach is responsible for the ‘reach’ of this project through the organisation of educational events, updating our socials with recent findings and data, and ensuring the public is made aware of our work and its implications as well as collecting public data and informing our team to help adjust our operations in ways which are most effective.

Lost HMO Team

Lost HMO Team focuses on the properties that used to operate using HMO Licences pre or post-freeze but have now stopped. The team aims to research the properties that have lost their HMOs, the reasons for their loss, and what it operates as now. The team uses extensive internet research and resources such as Google Maps, HMO Register and Real Estate websites. This allows the project to understand the nature of such HMO licence losses and may, in the future, help us predict which properties will no longer operate using HMO licences and why.

Price Data Team

Price Data Team works mostly on analysing the change in property price pre and post-HMO licence caps. They often use web scraping in Python to search the internet for prices of a particular HMO property on different websites over a period of time to see whether the caps had triggered any changes. This helps us understand and predict the price fluctuations in the wider community.

Spatial Econometrics Team

Spatial Econometrics Team works on understanding the locations of HMO Licenced properties. This includes investigating the migration of HMO properties; whether there is a trend post-caps and the different impacts on geographical areas in St Andrews, allowing us to evaluate clusters or absences of HMO properties in a particular location. This information can then be used to determine to build models and forecast data.