How people perceive immigrants will likely affect housing values, with suburbs that have negative views experiencing less growth in property prices.
While a rise in immigration leads to greater housing demand, anti-immigrant communities face declining prices, according to a new study published in the Journal of Housing Economics.
“In theory, if people are more predisposed towards immigrants there may be a higher price as well, but (my colleagues and I) found that those areas with negative attitudes get lower increase in house prices,” said Deakin University researcher and co-author of the study Chris Doucouliagos.
The analysis looked at 474 estimates of immigration impact on house prices in 14 different destination countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
“We found that immigration increases house prices in the aggregate. However, using data from the World Values Survey, we show that attitudes to immigrants moderate this effect,” said Doucouliagos.
The study showed that more pressure on supply and demand, including attitudes of buyers and sellers, could affect the housing market.
“Demand and supply are influenced by attitudes. In terms of selling your house, if you sell to an immigrant, you’re gaining, aren’t you? Anything that causes friction to trade, or restricts trade in that way is going to limit financial gains,” said Doucouliagos.
