Residential Mobility of the European Elderly

With the ageing of the European population, the housing choices of the large elderly cohorts will have consequences on the whole housing market. This article combines micro data from two waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with macro data on housing policy to analyse the residential mobility decisions of the elderly in 11 European countries. Residential mobility is low, but we find some evidence that those who move in old age tend to reduce housing consumption and investment by going from owning to renting. This 'downsizing' is positively linked to housing capital gains, while the existence of reverse mortgages in a country reduces it. We also find that mobility to nursing homes and mobility between private homes respond to different incentives and motivations. (JEL codes: D10, R21, R28).