Impact on Housing - Main Points
The below summary was last updated July 2019
- The UK has a housing crisis because supply is insufficient for current population growth. Home ownership is falling and a growing number of young people have to live with their parents due to high rents.
- Immigration is a critical factor. For example, it drove up house prices in England by about 20% between 1991 and 2016 (Govt bulletin, April 2018).
- ONS data for a recent ten-year period shows that more than 90% of added households in England had a non-UK born head (‘England’ tab of spreadsheet).
- Immigration to England at current levels will generate the need to build one home every six minutes, night and day (Household Projections).
- Even this underestimates the impact of immigration on future housing demand, since it only takes account of future arrivals. While the relatively young age structure of the existing non-UK born population means this will also drive future household growth.
- The UK housing crisis must be addressed but not by building on the UK’s green belt and eating up our countryside. A major reduction in immigration has to be a significant part of the solution, in addition to improvements in the supply of housing.
- A majority (54%) of those who say there is a housing crisis see immigration as the main reason (Parliamentary briefing, 2017).
- 55% of 18-24 year olds support the government’s promise to reduce the immigration by a significant amount. Immigration is a key factor in rising housing costs (Channel 4 News Deltapoll, June 2018).
Impact on Housing Research
Record net migration and the rising demand for housing
8 June, 2023 - Briefing Paper: MW 514
Impact of immigration on demand for homes in England
3 January, 2021 - Briefing Paper: MW 486
Housing
8 July, 2019 - Briefing Paper: MW 430
Immigration and Housing
21 December, 2017 - Briefing Paper: MW 438
The Impact of Immigration on Housing Demand in England
15 November, 2017 - Briefing Paper: MW 424
International migration, population growth and households in the UK
29 April, 2015 - Briefing Paper: MW 362
The Demand for Housing in London
15 October, 2014 - Briefing Paper: MW 339
Who is getting local authority housing in London? Are some London councils telling the full story?
2 January, 2013 - Briefing Paper: MW 286
Migration and the Demand for Housing in England
31 August, 2011 - Briefing Paper: MW 239
Library
Over the 24 years that Migration Watch UK has been working in this field we have produced many papers.
View Impact on Housing Library