International Migration and Regional Housing Markets: Evidence from France

Abstract

This article examines the causal relations between immigration and the characteristics of the housing market in host regions. We constructed a unique database from administrative records and used it to assess annual migration flows into France’s twenty-two administrative regions from 1990 to 2013. We then estimated various panel vector autoregression models, taking into account gross domestic product per capita and the unemployment rate as the main regional economic indicators. We find that immigration has no significant effect on property prices but that higher property prices significantly reduce immigration rates. We also find no significant relationship between immigration and social housing supply.