What Do We Learn from Mobile Phone Location Data about Mobility and Housing During Covid-19

Abstract

We use mobile phone location data from the UK to investigate the impact of mobility on the housing market during the Covid-19 pandemic. We analyse more than 267 million cell phone locations and timestamp records attributed to 126,261 individuals in England and Wales in March 2020 and 2021. Our analysis reveals that as a result of the pandemic, the average frequency with which individuals visit the workplace decreased from 4 days to 2.8 days per week. We found areas with higher work from home potential or remote work share are associated with less visits to the workplace during COVID-19. We use a first-difference instrumental variable model and observe that a 10% reduction in workplace visit frequency is associated with a 1% decline in house prices and a 4.6% decrease in rents. We also find that places characterised with high numbers of visits to local amenities during the pandemic are associated with larger house prices increase, but no significant impact on rents.

Keywords: Mobility patterns, house prices and rents, workplace visits, amenities, mobile phone location data, Covid-19

JEL Classification: R21, R30, J60, R12