Skip to main content
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics
Download PDF

Immigration and Swiss House Prices

Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics volume 153, pages 15–36 (2017)Cite this article

Summary

This study examines the behavior of Swiss house prices in relation to immigration flows for 85 regions from 2001 to 2006. The results show that the nexus between immigration and house prices holds even in an environment of low house price inflation and modest immigration flows. An immigration inflow equal to 1 % of an area’s population is coincident with an increase in prices for single-family homes of about 2.7 %, a result consistent with previous studies. The overall immigration effect for single-family houses captures almost two-thirds of the total price increase.

References

  • Accetturo, Antonio, Francesco Manaresi, Sauro Mocetti, and Elisabetta Olivieri (2014), “Don’t Stand so Close to Me: The Urban Impact of Immigration”, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 45, pp.45–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akbari, Ather H., and Yigit Aydede (2012), “Effects of Immigration on House Prices in Canada”, Applied Economics, 44(13), pp.1645–1658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aydemir, Abdurrahman, and George J. Borjas (2011), “Attenuation Bias in Measuring the Wage Impact of Immigration”, Journal of Labor Economics, 29(1), pp.69–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartel, Ann P. (1989), “Where Do the New U.?S. Immigrants Live?”, Journal of Labor Economics, 7(4), pp.371–391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basten, Christoph, and Cathérine Koch (2015a), “Higher Bank Capital Requirements and Mortgage Pricing: Evidence from the Countercyclical Capital Buffer (CCB)”, BIS Working Papers No.?511, Bank of International Settlements.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basten, Christoph, and Cathérine Koch (2015b), “The Causal Effect of House Prices on Mortgage Demand and Mortgage Supply: Evidence from Switzerland”, Journal of Housing Economics, 30, pp.1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basten, Christoph, and Michael Siegenthaler (2013), “Do Immigrants Take or Create Residents’ Jobs? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Switzerland”, KOF Working Papers, ETH Zurich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borjas, George J. (2003), “The Labor Demand Curve is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(4), pp.1335–1374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borjas, George J. (2006), “Native Internal Migration and the Labor Market Impact of Immigration”, Journal of Human Resources, 41(2), pp.221–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borowiecki, Karol J. (2012), “Dynamics of a Protected Housing Market: The Case of Switzerland”, Urban Studies, 49(14), pp.3195–3210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Card, David (2001), “Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration”, Journal of Labor Economics, 19(1), pp.22–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drechsel, Dirk (2015), “Housing Cycles in Switzerland: A Time-Varying Approach”, KOF Working Paper, ETH Zurich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, Andreas M. (2012), “Immigrant Language Barriers and House Prices”, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 42(3), pp.389–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, Andreas M. (2014), “Immigration and Large Banknotes”, Macroeconomic Dynamics, 18(04), pp.899–919.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glitz, Albrecht (2012), “The Labor Market Impact of Immigration: A Quasi-Experiment Exploiting Immigrant Location Rules in Germany”, Journal of Labor Economics, 30(1), pp.175–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gobillon, Laurent, and Matthieu Solignac (2016), “The Access of Immigrants to the Homeownership Market”, Tech. Rep. January 16, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez, Libertad and Francesc Ortega (2013), “Immigration and Housing Booms: Evidence from Spain”, Journal of Regional Science, 53(1), pp.37–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graf, Silvio, Armin Jans, and Daniel Sager (2007), „Personenfreizügigkeit und Wohnungsmarkt“, Studie im Auftrag des Bundesamtes für Wohnungwesen, Zürcher Hochschule Winterthur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greulich, Erica, John M. Quigley, Steven Raphael, Joseph Tracy, and Guillermina Jasso (2004), “The Anatomy of Rent Burdens: Immigration, Growth, and Rental Housing”, Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, pp.149–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guin, Benjamin S., and Martin Brown (2015), “Individual Mortgage Choice and Aggregate Mortgage Risk-Evidence from Switzerland”, Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 151(2), pp.3–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Häcki, Daniela (2015), „Einwanderung und der Schweizer Immobilienmarkt“, Master thesis, University of Lucerne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, Jennifer, and Marjolaine Gauthier-Loiselle (2010), “How Much Does Immigration Boost Innovation?”, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2(2), pp.31–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mack, Adrienne, and Enrique Martinez-Garcia (2011), “A Crosscountry Quarterly Database of Real House Prices: A Methodological Note”, Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute Working Paper No.?99, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munshi, Kaivan (2003), “Networks in the Modern Economy: Mexican Migrants in the US Labor Market”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 188(2), pp.549–599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Münz, Rainer (2007), “Migration, Labor Markets, and Integration of Migrants: An Overview for Europe”, HWWI Policy Paper, Hamburgisches WeltWirtschafts Institut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orrenius, Pia M., and Madeline Zavodny (2007), “Does Immigration affect wages? A look at Occupation-Level Evidence”, Labour, 14(5), pp.757–773.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. and Giovanni Peri (2012), The Effects of Immigration on US Wages and Rents: A General Equilibrium Approach, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saiz, A (2007), “Immigration and Housing Rents in American Cities”, Journal of Urban Economics, 61(2), pp.345–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stalder, Peter (2003), „Entkoppelung der Mieten vom Hypozins: Implikationen der Mietrechtsrevision für die Geldpolitik“, SNB Quartalsheft, 3, pp.44–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steiner, Elizabeth (2010), “Estimating a Stock-Flow Model for the Swiss Housing Market”, Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 146(3), pp.601–627.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stillman, Steven, and David C Maré (2008), “Housing Markets and Migration: Evidence from New Zealand”, Motu Working Paper 08–06, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werczberger, Elia (1997), “Home Ownership and Rent Control in Switzerland”, Housing Studies, 12(3), pp.337–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wüest & Partner (2004), „Analysen und Prognosen Fokus Wohnungsmarkt“, Immo-Monitoring.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, Holzikofenweg 36, CH-3003, Bern, Switzerland

    Kathrin Degen

  2. Swiss National Bank, CH-8022, Zurich, Switzerland

    Andreas M. Fischer

Authors
  1. Kathrin Degen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andreas M. Fischer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathrin Degen.

Additional information

This paper was written when Kathrin Degen was with the Swiss National Bank. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Swiss National Bank or the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs. The authors would like to thank Barthélémy Bonadio, Martin Brown, Tommaso Frattini, Sarah Lein, Albert Saiz, Steven Stillman, and an anonymous referee for their valuable comments. The authors also benefited from discussions with Urs Hausmann and Dieter Marmet from Wüest & Partner and numerous students from Swiss Universities. Data and code are available from the authors. The authors acknowledge use of the dataset described in Mack and Martinez-Garcia (2011).

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Degen, K., Fischer, A.M. Immigration and Swiss House Prices. Swiss J Economics Statistics 153, 15–36 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03399433

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03399433

JEL-Classification

  • F22
  • J61
  • R21

Keywords

  • immigration
  • housing prices