Age at arrival and immigrants’ housing outcomes: evidence from the UK

We provide new evidence on how immigrants' age at arrival relates to their housing tenure and living conditions in the UK. While previous research has examined the role of socio-economic and demographic factors in immigrants' housing outcomes, the effect of age at migration remains underexplored. Using a representative dataset from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we analyse how immigrants' arrival age is associated with their likelihood of homeownership, reliance on social housing, and housing quality. Our findings confirm that those who arrive as adults face significantly lower homeownership prospects than those who arrive aged 0-5 years, with the oldest arrivals exhibiting a 44-percentage-point gap. Contrary to expectations, later arrivals are not more likely to rely on social housing than earlier arrivals or natives. Furthermore, we find no strong evidence that housing or neighbourhood quality differs systematically based on age at arrival. These results provide insight into the link between immigrant generations, housing market segments and housing quality outcomes with implications for household welfare. The findings are therefore relevant for policymakers and valuable for local and regional expenditure, forecasting, and economic development.