Role
Dr Alla Koblyakova is the Course Leader for the BSc (Hons) Property Finance and Investment programme at the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University. Alla designs the course and delivers several modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She supervises PhD, and master's students in the field of Real Estate Economics and Real Estate Finance, covering areas such as housing and mortgage market economics, affordability, housing policy, mortgage market efficiency, and financial regulation. Alla conducts internationally collaborative research and contributed to REF 2014 and REF 2021 submissions.
Alla is also a member of the Centre for Real Estate Research at the University of Aberdeen and the Transparency Task Force.
Alla leads several international research projects and conducts research on housing mortgage affordability policy. Currently, Alla works with the Central Statistical Bureau, the Transparency Task Force, and the Fair Banking Parliamentary Group UK, focusing on housing and mortgage affordability, fair banking, mortgage pricing, and the efficiency of the mortgage market. Currently Alla works on several international research projects in collaboration with academics and policy makers from the UK, Australia, Japan, and Israel. These include “Spatial Disparities in HH debt”, “Housing Affordability Gap”, “Fair Mortgage Rates” and “Efficiency of Affordable Housing Policy”.
Alla is dedicated to academic leadership, has a proven history of nurturing excellence in both teaching and research, and is committed to innovation, equality, diversity, and inclusivity. She is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Career overview
Before joining NTU, Alla worked in the investment industry and later at the University of Aberdeen Business School. With her background in both academia and finance, she developed a diverse range of research interests, including mortgage pricing, the efficiency of housing policy, macroeconomics, microfinance, financial economics, econometrics, and applied economics. While working in the financial sector, she led the introduction of a new methodology for obligatory papers at sale, which was adopted by several major industry players from EACU member countries. Her research is rooted in financial economics and incorporates techniques and perspectives from related fields, including empirical modelling, econometrics, mortgage market efficiency, households' economic decisions and housing/mortgage policy analysis.
Qualifications
- PhD In Real Estate
- MBA in Business and Real Estate
- MSc in Management and Finance
- MSc in Civil Engineering
- BSc in Economics
Additional Qualifications
Fellow of the HEA (Certificate PRI2658).
PhD Students
Muftah Malek: Housing and Mortgage Affordability in the Middle-East Countries.
Jenhatakarnkij Kittitah: The Determinants of Condominium House Prices in Bangkok.
Liming Yao: House price appreciation and housing policy: a study of housing affordability and tenure choice in China.
Justine Wang: House Price Dynamics and Property Bubble Analysis in Australia and China. External Supervisor (Macquarie University, Sydney).
Research areas
Research Projects
Alla’s research contributed to the REF 2014 and REF 2021 submissions within UoA 13 at NTU. Her current projects focus on policy impact studies, including the efficiency of the mortgage market, housing and mortgage affordability questions, Household Debt, and Equity Release Mortgages. Alla’s pioneering research contributes to a more profound understanding of households' mortgage decisions, housing affordability issues, and the effectiveness of affordable housing policy initiatives, providing empirical evidence of the regionally asymmetric distribution of mortgage risks and inequality in access to mortgage funds within the mortgage market.
As a consultant in the mortgage market industry, Alla's work led to the introduction of a new mortgage affordability index and housing metrics for the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel. She has also collaborated with other companies and policymakers on issues related to the fairness of mortgage pricing, as well as the evaluation and management of mortgage risks and households' financial decisions.
External activity
Scientific Journals: Peer Review
Alla reviews articles in several academic journals, including the Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Land Use Policy, Environment and Planning A, Housing Policy Debate, the Statistical Journal of the IAOS, the Journal of Risk and Financial Management, the International Journal of Financial Studies, the International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis.
External Appointments
Honoured research associate at the University of Aberdeen Business School (since 2014).
Adjunct PhD supervisor at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
External Funding
Principal Investigator - Consultancy Report: Retail Mortgages in the UK: Lending Strategies and Borrowers' Issues (funded by the ME Groups Holdings Ltd).
Co-Investigator - Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Japan, Research Grant in Aid 235530257: Cross-country differences in mortgage markets: Japan, Australia, and the UK.
Publications
Publications
Fleishman, L., Sayag , D. and Koblyakova, A. (2025) Homeownership Affordability: Data-driven Methodology for Effective Housing Policy. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis. DOI: 10.1108/IJHMA-07-2025-0162. Forthcoming.
Hutchison, N.E., Koblyakova, A. and MacGregor, B.D. (2024) Equity Release Mortgages in the UK: Regional Characteristics of Demand and Supply. International Real Estate Review, 27 (4), pp.441-469.
Hutchison, N.E., Tiwari, P., Koblyakova, A., Green, D. and Tan, Y.L. (2024) Spatial dispar ity in household indebtedness across the UK. Journal of European Real Estate Research, 17 (3), pp.431-451.
Koblyakova, A., Fleishman, L. and Furman, O. (2022) Accuracy of Households’ Dwelling Valuations, Housing Demand and Mortgage Decisions: Israeli Case, The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 65,.48–74.
Fleishman, L., Gubman, Y. and Koblyakova, A. (2021) Valuation Modelling within Thin Housing Markets Case Study: Arab Housing Market in Israel, Journal of Housing Research, 29-1, p. 34-53.
Naoi, M., Tiwari, P., Moriizumu, Y., Yukutake, N., Hutchison, N., Koblyakova, A., Rao, J. (2019) “Household Mortgage Demand: A study of the UK, Australia and Japan”, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 12:1, 110-130.
Wang, J., Koblyakova, A., Tiwari, P. and Croucher, J. (2018) Is the Australian Market in a Bubble? International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 13-1.
Koblyakova, A. and White, M. (2017) “Supply Driven Mortgage Choice”, Urban Studies, 54:5, 1194 - 1210.
Koblyakova, A., Hutchison, N. and Tiwari, P. (2014) “Regional Differences in Mortgage Demand and Mortgage Instrument Choice in the UK”, Regional Studies, 48:9, 1499-1513.
Recent Conference Papers:
Equity Release Mortgages (with Hutchison, N. and MacGregor, B.D.), AsRes Annual Conference, Hong Kong, 13-17 July 2023.
Credit Constraints and Demand for Mortgage Debt (with White, M.), ERES Annual Conference, 12-15 July, 2023, London, UK.
Spatial Disparities in HH debt (with Hutchison, N., Tiwari, P., Green, D., Tan, J.) AREUEA 39 Annual Meeting, 20-23 March 2023, San Antonio, USA.
New Housing Affordability Metrics (with Fleishman, L. and D. Sayag), Israeli Economic Association Policy Conference, Tel Aviv, Israel, 16 June 2022.
Differences in Affordability Rates in the UK. (with Hutchison, N. and Tiwari, P.), Annual AREUEA AsRes Conference, 4-7 August 2022, Tokyo, Japan.
Housing Affordability Matrix (with Fleishman, L. and D. Sayag), Annual AREUEA AsRes Conference, 4-7 August 2022, Tokyo, Japan.
How Much Unaffordable Housing Can I Afford? (with Fleishman, L., Sayag, D.), ENHR Conference, 31 Aug.-2 Sep., 2022, Barcelona, Spain.
Efficiency of the HTB and Housing Affordability in the UK (Sole), ENHR Conference, 31 August-2 September 2022, Barcelona, Spain.
Koblyakova, A., White, M. Mapping Mortgage Affordability Rates in the UK. In AREUEA Conference, 24-26 June, 2019, Milan, Italy.
Fleishman, L., Koblyakova, A., Furman, O. Self-Reporting Dwelling Valuation and its effect on House Price Dynamics - Israeli Case. In AREUEA Conference, 24-26 June, 2019, Milan, Italy.
Subjective motives in households housing finance decisions in the UK (with Eccles, T.), Annual ENHR Conference, 27-30 August 2019, Athens, Greece.
Regional Differences in Lending Conditions in the UK (Sole), AREUEA Conference, 12-15 June 2018, Guangzhou, China.
Can Securitisation Rebalance Mortgage Market? (Sole), Annual ENHR Conference, 27-29 June 2018, Uppsala, Sweden.
Press coverage
* This is Money, 18 May 2025 Could NatWest's family mortgage blast your adult children on to the housing ladder?
* The iNews , 24 September, 2024 "Optimistic" mortgage rates could end up having to rise again, economists warns.
* The Daily Express, 10 November 2023 The one area house prices are 'rising faster than anywhere ...
* The Conversation, 04 July 2023 How the UK's mortgage rescue deal could help or hurt you
* BBC News, 3 November 2022 Biggest interest rate hike in decades as Bank warns of ... - BBC
*The Guardian, 3 November 2022 UK in 'prolonged recession' as Bank of England hikes ...
* This is Money, 23 September 2022 Will a cut to stamp duty raise house prices and is it a good ...
* Bloomberg, 2 September 2022 Alarm Bells Ring for UK Housing as Signs Point to Falling Prices
* The Times, 2 March, 2021 Mortgage Prisoners can no longer be abandoned to endure parlous plight
The Daily Mail, 24 September 2020: Daily Mail, 34 December 2020: Banking Break up Proposal is ‘short sighted ‘despite it working for Margaret Thatcher
- Bloomberg, 13 September 2020: British Banks Brace for Deeper Slump
- The Conversation, 29 January 2020: Negative interest rates will not fix the global economy – just ask Switzerland
- BBC Today 21 November 2018: Raising House Prices and Help to Buy Scheme
- The Daily Express, 23 March 2018 North vs. South house price WAR: London properties slump as the North soars
- The Daily Mail, 5 February 2018 Locals and UK residents to be given priority on buying London new-build homes worth up to £350,000
East Midlands applicants most likely to be denied a mortgage:
- Mortgage Introducer, 7 September 2017
- What Mortgage, 7 September 2017
- Mortgage Finance Gazette
- BBC East Midlands Today, 8 September 2017
- BBC Radio Nottingham, 8 September 2017
- BBC Radio Leicester, 11 September 2017
- The Sun, 7 September 2017
- BBC Breakfast (East Midlands), 8 September 2017
Variable mortgages make UK market more volatile, study shows:
- Mortgage Finance Gazette
- Mortgage Introducer
- BBC News TV
'New-build homes aren't the answer to rising house prices':
- The Daily Mail
- thisismoney.co.uk
- Mortgage Solutions
- What Mortgage
- Mortgage Introducer
- Housing Specification
'Are you paying over the odds for your mortgage?':
'Securitisation can be good for borrowers':
- Mortgage Financial Gazette
- Financial Reporter, 17 February 2016
- Property Reporter, 16 February 2016
- Mortgage Solutions, 16 February 2016
'North-South Divide Shows Risks posed by Rate Rise':
Press expertise
- Mortgage Pricing
- Households financial choices
- Housing Finance questions
- Affordability Issues
- Households indebtedness
- Housing policy
- Financial regulation
- Macroeconomic stability
- Monetary policy changes
- Efficiency of the banking system
- Securitisation
- Residential Investment
Press
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NEWS
Equity release doubled in the UK – with holidays a major factor, study shows
6 February 2025New research shows that people over the age of 55 are increasingly choosing to cash in on the equity in their homes to release funds for purchases like luxury holidays.
ntu.ac.uk/about-us/news/news-articles/2025/02/equity-release-doubled-in-the-uk-with-holidays-a-major-factor-study-shows