Age at Arrival and Immigrants' Housing Outcomes: Evidence from the UK

Abstract

We study the role of age at arrival for immigrants’ housing outcomes using a dataset representative of the population resident in the UK in 2014-2016. Age at arrival has previously been found to play a significant role in immigrants’ life outcomes. Unlike most prior studies, our data contain immigrants of all ages at arrival and the full range of countries of birth. Consistent with the literature, we find no significant difference between immigrants of all age groups under 18 when it comes to owning a home in later life, controlling for other factors. However, immigrants exhibit a significantly lower probability of being homeowners the later they enter the country, and this pattern holds for most regions of birth. Yet, housing and neighbourhood quality are mostly not affected by age at arrival. We also find that late-arrival immigrants are generally much less likely to be homeowners than Brits, while non-UK, Western European immigrants fare as well as their UK-born counterparts. The age-at-arrival-based homeownership gap disappears when we compare first-generation immigrants with second-generation immigrants, whom we deem to be a better comparison group from a cultural perspective. Cultural channels such as the immigrant’s proficiency in the language of the host country explain this gap. Lastly, immigrants rely less on housing welfare than natives, and later arrivals less than earlier ones.

Keywords: Homeownership, immigration, age at arrival

JEL Classification: J15, O18, R21, D15