Neighborhood Effects of Buy-to-Rent and Build-To Rent Public Housing

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact of new public rental housing on adjacent neighborhoods, focusing on their average consumption levels and population share of individuals aged 20 to 59 years. Using administrative data on public housing and credit card usage data with detailed geography, we examine the heterogeneous effects of two types of public housing: buy-to-rent and build-to rent. Buy-to-rent housing exhibits no significant effects on neighborhoods within its 500-meter radius. In contrast, build-to-rent housing reduces the consumption level by 1.9% and the share of the working-age population by 0.3 percentage points. The negative effects increase the closer the neighborhood is to public housing. The disparity in neighborhood effects between the two housing types can be partially attributed to the difference in the size of public housing units, but this factor does not entirely explain the variation.

Keywords: public housing, consumption, neighborhood composition, sorting