Refugees and apartment prices: A case study to investigate the attitudes of home buyers

Aico van Vuuren, Josef Kjellander and Viktor Nilsson

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2019, vol. 77, issue C, 20-37

Abstract: We evaluate the price development of apartments in neighborhoods surrounding temporary housing for refugees in the year after an unpredicted announcement of building sites, targeting refugees, in Gothenburg. Information on such a development can indicate how much home buyers dislike the idea of having refugees in their neighborhood. We use a difference-in-difference approach that takes into account the walking distance to the building sites and the time since the announcement. We find support for a negative and significant price effect of around 4 percent for apartments that were within a 5-minutes walking distance from the building sites, while there is no impact for houses situated at a longer distance. We find that the impact essentially comes from a drop in apartment prices at the moment that the building permits were accepted. We find that the price effect increases with the neighborhood's education level.

Keywords: House prices; Refugees; Attitudes; Announcements (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O15 O18 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:regeco:v:77:y:2019:i:c:p:20-37

DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2019.02.003

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