Migration and Housing Markets - Evidence from Sweden

International migration flows to Sweden have been significant in scale over the past few decades, but the nature of the flows has changed in recent years. Strong migration flows have occurred from a number of different regions, with arrivals ranging from refugees from other continents, to labour migrants from neighbouring countries. The aim of this PhD thesis is to examine the impact of these migration flows, as well as internal migration, on the housing market. The thesis examines the impact of different forms of migration on the different segments of the housing market that exist in Sweden, looking at the impacts on house prices and rents, as well as the impacts on the housing market in other contexts, using a number of unique methods and avenues that have not been previously explored in this context. The PhD thesis first introduces a conceptual framework, together with a comprehensive literature review of trends pertaining to the relationship between migration and housing in an international and national context. This is followed by a presentation of the context of the relationship between migration and housing in Sweden, which includes introducing the three primary housing markets - the owner-occupier market, the rental market, and the private housing cooperative market - as well as the roles played by refugee resettlement policy, and migration policy more generally. The remainder of the thesis comprises the main analytical sections, where both quantitative and qualitative topics are covered, all pertaining to the impact of migration on housing markets in Sweden, looking at house prices, rents and beyond. In terms of the empirical approach, an innovative approach is taken, with the inclusion of internal migration as an explanatory variable in the analysis. Further innovations include an analysis into how the impacts of migration on house prices and rents differ depending on the urbanisation characteristics of receiving regions, as well as a study of the impacts of foreign-born migrants by their region of origin. Beyond this, the thesis includes an analysis of how conceptually different markets function in relation to one another, as well as a study of housing availability, and a comparative analysis of other Nordic markets and submarkets. A qualitative analysis with key stakeholders, presented in the final substantive chapter, enables a broader range of perspectives to be explored with regard to migration and housing, as well as providing the foundations for a discussion on future policy. The analysis shows that, broadly speaking, both foreign-born and internal migrants have significant impacts on the housing market, through an increase in house prices and a reduction in housing availability. Further, the urban characteristics of a municipality, as well as the origin of migrants, are found to strongly influence the degree of impact of migration flows. Foreign-born labour migrants are generally found to impact major cities the most, while internal migrants are found to impact small urban areas , and refugees impact rural areas. The findings suggest that it is important to move away from an exclusive focus on foreign-based migration. The qualitative dimension of analysis also highlights several other divergences, and a clear disconnect between policymakers and other stakeholders, such as real estate developers